11 week old suddenly struggling on one breast

[NovemberFlush]

If anyone has any advice at all, please can you help me?
My 11 week old has always been a brilliant feeder. I feed him off both breasts each feed when he wants it. All of a sudden he's seeming to dislike one breast. He latches on fine, but as soon as the let down comes, he gets red in the face, cries, bashes around with his arms and legs. I put him on the other side and he's fine. There doesnt seem to be a difference in let down from what I can see and feel compared to before. I'm going to check his temperature to see if there's a possibility of an ear infection, but I don't know what it could be. I've been in tears, I'm so worried we've worked hard to establish breastfeeding and it's going to all be for nothing. 😥
I've even tried some of the milk to see if it tastes weird, but it's quite sweet and seems okay. (Sorry if that's grossed anyone out.)
I feel like him failing him somehow. Will he get what he needs from one side? Will this resolve itself?

Hi, hope you have a local breastfeeding support group or service you can call to work this out.

some things that pop in to my head to try are-

try putting him on that boob midway though feeding on the other boob- a cheeky swap .

try him with that boob first or second… whichever is the opposite of what you are doing regularly. Mix it up. See what works .

try that boob when he is sleepy/dreamfeeding. he might not notice as much.

try that boob when he is happy/grumpy … hungry/not hungry. Tired/alert.. This may give clues as to why he’s annoyed at that boob.

try different positions- snuggling in bed and laying down for him to feed when laying next to you in that boob may help as he could just be struggling with the changes in his positioning as he grows. try feeding standing up or in a sling. See if anything helps or hinders position wise.

babies can be sensitive to changes in let down that we don’t notice, it may be that the let down is stronger / weaker in this boob at the moment for whatever reason.

if he is coming off at the point of let down it could be that it’s faster / stronger than the other one.. try pumping a bit first then popping him on after initial let down , to see if that’s better? He may prefer the more reliable and predictable flow if the other boob at the moment.

equally Maybe it’s not coming out fast enough / as fast as the other one , so he is cross at that boob and prefers the other one ?

If he is favouring the other one your supply may be less in the less favoured boob, so you could try pumping from this one a bit if he refuses it at feed time to keep the supply up and make sure this doesn’t become a vicious cycle.

Sorry , I feel like I’ve given lots of conflicting options but often it’s a trial and error situation with breastfeeding and these things change and change back and change again! ultimately , you might never know why he’s doing this, but it will likely pass and something new will happen to have you scratching your head.

well done , sounds like you are doing amazingly well with your BF journey . Dont be disheartened, this doesnt mean its not working or is going to mean the end of BF if you dont want it to be …likely just a little bump in the road to work out xx

This sounds so familiar. I had 2 ten years apart. Both took an aversion to the left boob!! I successfully fed them both solely from the right boob from about 3 months on until they were over a year (and ot didn't leave me lopsided before anyone comments).

Great advice above from things to try but don't beat yourself up if it doesn't work either.

I had a boob of doom too 😂

interestingly it was different with all of them and sometimes it swapped.

@Ricoletti advice is great, lots of it is trial and error but is it unusual? Not at all.

You're doing great! And absolutely, categorically not failing him

One of my DC got to about 3mths and then only fed from my R side. Fed him until 19mths like that.

my body just made it work, no lopsided-ness and he was perfectly happy once I stopped trying to push the L breast.

You could latch him onto that boob but from the other side, like in the rugby ball hold. Then he might not notice as he's lying on the same side. I have done that before with a bit of success.

@Ricoletti thank you so much for your response. I've tried most of what you're suggesting, with no difference. I'm so worried this isn't going to sort itself out. I'm going to pump it for now and just keep trying. But it's not ideal. 😔

@NovemberFlush if it doesn’t, you can just carry on feeding from one boob without a problem.

@DancingNotDrowning @PotteringAlonggotkickedoutandhadtoreregister @Spirallingdownwards thank you for getting back to me. Interesting this happened to all 3 of you. And for 2 of you around the 3 month mark too. How did you manage it if you don't mind me asking? How did you cope with engorgement and preventing mastitis? And did your supply catch up in the one breast quickly? I'm so glad to hear you can continue feeding from one side, I'm so worried about this though.

It actually self adjusts really quickly and made me wonder whether actually I had already "been through the barrier" in that they had self limited what they were taking from that side (if that makes sense).

Oh yes, @grumpytoddler1I remember doing this too!
(my kids are WAY older now so I’m casting my mind back many years ) … but I remember second baby needed to be rugby balled for a bit. i also loosely swaddled her arms sometimes as she was a flapper.

for both of mine, they preferred the right boob overall … I came to the conclusion I was more comfy and relaxed holding them in this position, with this arm, and this is likely why they preferred this side.

I remember a midwife said to imagine if someone passed me a baby, what side would I naturally go to hold them on.. because that’s likely the most comfy and natural ‘hold’ position for BF.
for me this is the right arm/side, which was in fact the case for BF. I still always hold babies on my right arm when I get the chance for a cuddle!

My babies did get used to the left boob after a while, and could BF doing handstands by the time we stopped. Can’t remember what ages they stopped fussing about it though.

but as others have said, babies can do quite nicely with only one boob. I know women who have BF twins and they always only got one each , and women with babies that ended up feeding from just 1 boob. It’s all good!

@Spirallingdownwards okay, do you have to pump at intervals until it calms down? Only asking as I'm pretty curious anyway how people stop the engorgement when they stop breastfeeding in general. So glad it worked out for you, gives me hope if this is a permanent change. 🙏🏼

To be honest I never pumped because I got a few drips if anything when pumping. I collectd more in the breast shield thing than I could from pumping.

I get more milk out of my right than my left, always have. This is my second time bf and it's been the same both times. If I pump both boobs I get around 6 to 8 ounces per 10 mins on the right, but only about 2 ounces on the left! Doesn't matter what I try. My left is crap 😅 both DS prefer the right haha

It adjusted really quickly and I don’t recall any engorgement or supply issues - although I’m going back years in my memory here.

I suspect I’d been feeding more and more from the R breast without really thinking about it so it just wasn’t an issue.

Oh hi 👋😊 @dontcomeatme
That's interesting! For me, the boob he's struggling on actually produces more milk when I pump. I'm so so stressed about it. I managed to feed him on it when he was in between naps earlier, but not while he's been awake. Not sure what's going on tbh.

@DancingNotDrowning ah okay, thank you. I'm trying to feed equally, so I'm not sure why this is happening. I'm really hoping it's short lived as I'm worried it will take a while for my other boob to catch up with what he needs. 😥

Is your let down too fast for him? So you would see signs of struggling, choking, spluttering, pulling off really fast and getting frustrated? Sometimes my LO does this when I can feel the let down really strong x

@dontcomeatme no, a lot of the time I'm trying to position him and he'll start getting really upset and fussing. So he's not even latching on atm. The one that he prefers has the faster let down. So it's confusing me! 😥 I'm having to pump the side he's fussing on right now and genuinely feel so upset that this is happening. Don't mean to sound dramatic. But I love breast feeding my baby and I'm scared it's being taken away from me x

@NovemberFlushit's not dramatic at all, my older DS had a nipple strike at 4 months and I never got him back on, I had to exclusively pump after that 😢 so I totally understand where you're coming from.
Do you have a hacca? I would keep offering him his favourite boob for now and just put the hacca on the other while you feed to try and keep it stimulated. I would give him a couple of days and then try again, definitely when he's sleepy, dream feeds etc. 11 weeks is still so young, my new baby is only 12 weeks and he's started hurting one of my nipples but not the other? Almost like his latch is different? It's so painful I'm hoping he goes back to normal soon. What positions do you normally feed in? I've only ever done the "normal" cradle position x

Oh really, that's must have been so hard. How long did you end up pumping for? Did he just stop suddenly one day then?
Thank you for understanding 😥
Im using an elvie pump for the other side. Hes not used to bottles and doesn't really like them, but we're going to have to keep trying him with them now just in case. It feels so wrong.
Im sorry to hear feeding is hurting for you, I hope that clears up soon.
Im feeding in cradle position too. Have tried rugby ball, but no difference.

He started fussing on the boob and within a few days he just refused to feed at all, he would scream hysterically and just keep crying. I caved and give him a bottle and then he just never went back on the boob, I continued to try but it was so distressing for us both i switched to pumping. He had my milk in a bottle until he was 1, but it was soo hard pumping.
It's only one nipple so I'm hoping he's just over playing with it for comfort!
Have you tried leaning yourself back to a half sitting half lying position and put him lying on his tummy against you? My little one loves lying like this to feed.

It's horrible watching them drink from a bottle for the first time I totally understand 😥 I hated it. Since my new baby has been born we've always give him a couple of expressed ounces a day in a bottle, just so he gets used to it but also so it's not such a huge aversion for me. I hope your LO takes to a bottle, but at least in the meantime you can build a milk stash in the freezer 🤞 x

Hey! Try feeding him in a different position. My baby struggles with colic and sometimes if I flip him onto his other side or back he will feed fine… but mine does the same when I’m feeding from my right breast and he’s laying on this right side. I have to feed him underarm and he’s good then.

Thank you so much for all your replies. Things seem a lot better now. Just wanted to update in case anyone in the has this and is worried. It seems to be going back to how it was before 😊

I had this for a while, I think 5-7 months. My right boob is now forever called the "favourite boob". I persevered and put him on the bad (left) boob at night, or when he wasn't too hungry, so I kept my supply although it definitely produces less milk. He got over it and stopped rejecting the left boob around 7 months. No clue what it was about!