why is 6mo rejecting the breast?

[ChasingButterflies]

ds is 6mo (today!) and exc bf. he's getting his first taste of solids at the weekend, and i think he's ready - he's been feeding a lot this week. all fine during the day but last night and tonight his bedtime feed (around 8pm) has been a real struggle. it's usually a nice long, snuggly feed, but now he's latching on, sucking for a few minutes, then breaking off and seeming very frustrated and obv still hungry. tried switching sides (several times!) and the same thing happens over and over, with him getting crosser and crosser. both evenings i've ended up giving him a bottle of EBM, about 200ml/7fl oz, and he's drunk the lot, even after 20mins+ of bf (albeit interrupted).
last night i just thought i'd bf him when he next woke, but he slept right through to 7.30am
obv should not moan about that BUT my breasts were really full this morning and i don't want to mess up my supply. should i pump this eve to compensate?
any thoughts on why this might be happening? could it be linked to needing some solids?

Happy half birthday to your DS!!!

My DS, who is 14 dys older than yours, got very weird around feeding time as he approached solids. It took a couple of days to bed in... ok maybe a week , but he has settled again now. He now seems to be fuller and calmer generally, and enjoys hanging around on the breast much longer! He is hilarious really- I don't think he's even that hungry but he just loves lying there, slowly sucking (when he's always been a right guzzler), watching the world go past over my shoulder. Bless his little cotton socks!

I bet it's the same for you.

Thanks yeti, i really hope it is that! he's started getting cross during his feeds this morning too but obv i can't resort to EBM for every feed so we're just taking our time... tomorrow is solids day so fingers crossed!

My little boy started refusing the bedtime feed when he started on solids,
I tried to offer the bottle instead but he didn't really want this either.
So I started to put him to bed without a milk feed and he sleeps through fine (better in fact).
It is the morning feed that he loves, not the bedtime one. So the first thing he wanted when he woke up was a breast feed,
now he has a bottle instead as he is fully weaned.

I used to get very full breasts and would often have to get up in the night to pump and dump, otherwise they would leek everywhere.
(Felt like I had been hijacked by Pamela Anderson's chest)

So basically don't worry about him choosing to drop a feed or two - I think this is totally normal

Thanks ten, yes, I was half-expecting that he would start dropping feeds when he started on solids, just didn't expect him to start objecting before! I guess we will see over the next week whether introducing some different food affects this frustration he seems to be having with bf.
Really hope I don't have to start getting up in the night to pump! Poor you

Are you sure that he isn't teething? Maybe try rubbing a little teething gel into his gums shortly before a feed? You'll soon know if it helps.

Good point, Swaliswan, hadn't thought of teething (am so focused on starting solids tomorrow, but of course ds doesn't know that!). He doesn't have any teeth yet so it wouldn't be a huge surprise if one were to put in an appearance soon. Will give the gel a try. Hmm, stupid question: it won't numb his mouth so much it'll stop him feeding properly, will it?

No, but I'm not convinced that it tastes great so maybe try and keep it off of his tongue. It might not be teething but it shouldn't hurt him to try something so simple.

Oh, the other it could be is if he has thrush in his mouth. Apparently it puts them off of their milk but I'm only telling you what the HV said and we all know how rubbish they can be