Refusing my breasts!

[lesleyh]

6 week old has now been refusing breast for almost two weeks; pulling off, not finishing feeds, becoming hysterical. Have tried everything and am having to resort to bottles which is killing me - feel like a bad mom for using formula. Anyone have tips on how to make this gradual switch easier on me?

lesley - you need to speak to someone in real life about this, so you can give more info. There is a lot to explore when a baby of this age is refusing the breast. Sorry can't help much without more details.

Any suggestions on where to find a real person? Have spoken to numerous already and keep getting differing guidance, none of which seems to work...

lesley, go to www.howbreastfeedingworks.com and you will find all the BF helplines down the right hand side.

or direct www.howbreastfeedingworks.com

In the meantime, are you able to tell us more about the feeds, describe in detail what is happening?

My little girl started doing this at 12 weeks of age (big growth spurt) and my health visitor said that its because the milk let down was too slow for how hungry she was. Impatient madam!

It could obviously be other reasons but my little girl spent an hour screaming at my boobs to then quickly drown 9 oz of formula. Like you, I felt bad, but it was "her" choice in some respects.

Sadly she continued like this and I now only partially breast feed her, but was glad to get as far as I had. For me, she wasnt content otherwise.

Could you express milk and give it her in a bottle so she gets is quicker?

bumping for you

At just over for weeks my little girl started to get really fussy with her feeds having been feeding well previously (which is miraculous given I have been struggling with systemic candida since delivery and have just started taking antibiotics to treat this). A few advisors have looked at her latch and say it is fine (not fabulous, but good enough). She seems to be latching on, sucking for about 30 seconds, then coming off. This happens over and over again. I switch breasts and she does the same thing. In the meantime she's becoming frantic; red in the face, kicking her legs, batting my breast with her little hands, and pulling like mad at my breast until she comes off. Each feed has now become a bit of a battle which I fear. The only good feeds that she has seem to happen AFTER she has had a bottle of formula, so about 5-6 hours between feeds (unless, of course, we go to see anyone about this in which case she feeds like a trooper). Any thoughts?

It can be a bit more complicated than that Pamelat- nursing strikes/breast refusals are difficult problems that need some expert intervention. If you want to move to formula, that's up to you but the baby is not necessarily 'choosing' it as such.

Often - IME and following lots of reading, but please speak to someone as I'm not a BF counsellor - refusals are sometimes because a baby cannot suck... perhaps because of illness, pain or exhaustion/hunger. It is important to rule these out I think, with the help of a professional/BFC. Certainly the first nursing strike we had was because of illness.

It can then however slip into a more 'emotional' vicious circle though, with me it was trying the breast even though he rejected it. I wish then I'd been more laid back and followed the advice of BF counsellors about making sure he had enough milk even if formula, and allowing him to come back to the breast on his own terms with lots of skin contact, snuggling, co-sleeping and less routine and stress.

If I had done this, I think I probably wouldn't have experienced a later, longer and worse nursing strike also.

If you want more info on this please ask me, or look at the La Leche League site or ring them or visit the www.kellymom.com

My little one was older though, and could virtually self latch with the first strike and definitely with the second; I'm not sure how I would have coped with a 6 week old.

I had the same problem with DD1, at 8 weeks after good Breastfeeding, she began to take less and less,and would come off screaming. I was told,and read that they became more efficient at draining the Breast,so the time would decrease,but my experience with DS told me it was a little too early to be cutting down so drastically.I phoned the NCT Breastfeeding counsellor,(available to Non-members as well)she suggested slow let down, but I could feel her suck change within 2-3 minutes,that she was getting the hind milk,she also suggested Thrush,but could see no signs of that,she eventually said I needed someone to sit with me and see what was going on,all great, but she was in the Midlands! meanwhile I had a desperately hungry baby,and I was feeling very useless and distressed myself.My DH just went out when he realised how low I was and how hungry our DD1 was, and bought me some formula and bottles,I was ver sad,but she took a full bottle,and never looked back.Later I realised that there are Local La Leche groups.

OK. Back to your issues! Have you BOTH been treated for the candida simultaneously? Because if you have it she almost certainly does too. I suspect this may well be some of the problem since if she's sore it may be difficult for her to latch.

Treating it can be difficult: what treatment have you got?

The other advice I got from LLL was to try (ha! can be difficult with a frantic baby!) to destress the latching on process.

Here's what I do: feed in the same dark comfortable place each time. Close my eyes once latched and count backwards from 10, breathing the '10' towards me in my mind with the in breath and blowing it away very slowly. Now this sounds like hippy shit but it worked for me because I used it to 'condition' my letdown reflex: not actually focusing on it in that kind of oh my god the milk MUST come soon feeling but instead a distraction that relaxed me but allowed me still to judge if things were improving. After a few feeds of doing this, I realised I'd gone down in time from getting to 1 to only getting as far as 6.

.... both on line and by telephone,who gave me good advice,but I'd switched then,and DD1 was thriving.Also in Chelmsford there is a Drop-in Breastfeeding group in Springfield Green,which have a Breastfeeding Counsellor in attendence.I'd recommend the La Leche league,good avice but too late for me.I then went on to feed my DD2 successfully with no problems.

Lots of advice here about giving formula but you don't have to make that decision if you don't want to; but you DO need to treat the thrush first and get expert person to person help.

yep - we're both being treated. me with antibiotics (after numerous other treatments which only partially fixed the problem) and baby with daktarin oral gel a few times a day. thus far baby has shown no signs of thrush, thankfully!

You could do a search on nursing strike on these threads and you will find me with a different name (monkeybird) giving my experiences.

which antibiotics though lesley?

fluconozole

good! that should do it... I believe some people also swear by grapefruit seed extract (also known as citricidal) but I haven't tried this and never sure if you take, paint or what!

I'm about to put my head down; baby sure to want to feed shortly. Keep the advice coming please!!!!

Ooh - I did grapefruit seed extract - took it orally. tastes like grapefruit peels - awful!!!

I've just remembered DD1 went through a phase of fussing and pulling at the breast. It was just a phase tho and it did pass.
Good luck

My ds started doing similar at 5w, especially when feeding from the left breast. It was only when reflux was diagnosed 3w later and he was started on effective medication that it stopped and he started feeding really well.