Baby doesn’t want to breastfeed any more

[Stardust127]

Hi,

My baby who is 3 months old has stopped wanting to breastfeed. He acts as though he is traumatised when I try to breastfeed him now. There’s nothing wrong with his latch so it’s just that he doesn’t want to feed from me anymore so nothing that a breastfeeding support clinic will be able to help with. I don’t want to express. I want to stop completely. I’d like to know how to do it properly as I know you can’t just stop it completely .

im suffering from depression and anxiety as it is so this has tipped me over the edge as I was so desperate to breastfeed. We had to put baby on a bottle with formula from a week old as he was in and out of hospital for losing so much weight. We kept with it to keep his weight up. So was mix feeding.

the only difference I can think of that has caused this is that I got Covid and that coincided with him not wanting to feed anymore. Could just be that though, a coincidence.

It could be that covid changed the taste of your milk or reduced your supply so that your baby got frustrated?
Will he still take a bottle ok?
I found that they wanted to feed less often at around 3 months but would take more volume at each feed. Are you offering milk when he's not hungry maybe? How often is he feeding in a day?
Maybe try expressing to keep your supply up and give it in a bottle for now so you know he is getting milk, then try going back on the breast every few days.
If this ends up being the end of breastfeeding for you and you switch to formula please don't beat yourself up, you've done amazingly to feed for 3 months , and your mental health matters too. If switching to formula feels right then do that.

Ps to stop it's best to do it gradually or you could end up with mastitis. Express for now, dropping the number of times a day you express every few days x