3 month breastfeeding refusal

[gardenlady1]

My daughter turned 12 weeks on Friday. For the last few weeks she has breastfed less which stressed me out but I put down to growing and being more efficient. Her weight stayed on the same percentile.

She had her 30-40% tongue tie cut at 11 weeks and feeding did improve then (she was taking in a bit of air before). She uses a dummy (since 9 weeks) for sleep and has one bottle of milk off dad before bed. we use Dr Browns narrow teat size 1 and pace feed as advised. I have quite a fast let down on my right boob.

However the past few days if I put her to my boob she screams and pushes away, it can result in a full on screaming fit. We use cradle and upright feeding positions and non are working.
She has been going 4 hours between feeds sometimes, I tend to get her on the boob as soon as she wakes up from a nap but she lasts only 5-10 mins, but she seems content.

It got worse this morning - she refused her morning BF which has never happened. Screamed the house down until we gave her a bottle of expressed milk and now she is sleeping on me. I’m trying skin to skin and not getting stressed around her (although I’m going mad!)

I’ve read about the 3 month BF crisis and wondering if it’s that, but have no idea how to manage it without her getting a bottle preference.

Any experience would be so welcomed!

The trouble with Combi feeding is tgat they can start to show a clear preference for with the boob or the bottle and start refusing the other one. If you want to continue BFing ciukd you swap the bottle for a cup?

I would also have a read of this on fast letdown and give one of the BFing helplines a call. Have you got the numbers?

What is your goal, realistically? If you want to breastfeed long term then remove the bottle for now and breastfeed directly. The risk is that she'll become a bottle refuser but it's unlikely if she's been fine so far. Are you going back to work soon or were thinking of moving to formula anyway? If so, then you need to prioritise bottle feeding. If not, then continue to breastfeed directly.

I'm still breastfeeding at 7, almost 8 months old, and it gets super easy at this age UNLESS you need to go back to work.

Can you try lying down to feed her? Or koala hold if she is strong enough. I think this is normal and you just have to see it through and keep offering. Obviously if you go to bottle it’s fine but might impact your breastfeeding long term if you do it regularly. It’s really tough.

Have you tried the rugby hold? Mine loved that around that age as he got to look around more as he was feeding. You need quite a few pillows to make you and baby comfortable but once you get that right, it works really well.

Thanks everyone. Up until now she’s been fine combo feeding, say if I’ve had to go out and she needs feeding. Hard to not feed her when she’s screaming at the moment though.

today I did two contact naps and slid her down to my boobs towards the end of the nap and she fed okay. But when she’s wide awake the boob is a no go.

I’ve tried rugby but she’s so long she kicks the sofa and pushes away, I’ll keep trying different places though.

I don’t go back to work until October but need the flexibility of bottle for if I need to go out or away before then.

I do remember only being able to feed when dc were falling asleep or just waking up for a little while, it is just a phase don’t panic, just do what you can, you’re doing great

Thank you this is reassuring! X

My DC1 was like this, started showing a clear bottle preference around the same age. I was already in the process of gradually weaning her onto formula anyway because I hated breastfeeding her due to pain, so it just sped it up a little bit.