Breast Preference

[CheekyGirl]

My 15wk ds is refusing my right breast!! he will sometimes take it if he is sleepy. I have tried tricking him with under arm etc, but he's got wise. He will never take it if he's wide awake, hungry or windy. Any ideas?????????????

Can you feed him lying down?

DS did this and other than holding him like a rugby ball/lying down (which occasionally worked) I never found a solution! It didn't help that by that point right breast was about ready to explode! I just expressed from it a little bit before I tried to feed him and just kept trying. In the end (about 3 or 4 days) he stopped and went back to both.

Hope somebody else has some more constructive ideas!

ds3 was like this for a while! I THINK it was because he tried to feed from it when it was engorged and got overwhelmed. I just persisted and eventually he took both

I'm the opposite. Ds has always preferred the right breast. I just persevere but swapped sides if he was unhappy.

Now he is older he tends to bite my left breast if I offer him that one first ouch!

Well, glad to hear I'm not alone. Yesterday, I got really full my right side, and he did feed really well but only because he was sleepy. then he started refusing both sides! For the last 24hours, I have only been able to feed him when he's been almost asleep!
Oh,and I've never got the hang of feeding lying down. I would really love to be able to.

I can feed lying down but with ds1 and ds3 I found that they were more likely to projectile vomit afterwards. ds2 didn't have that problem. In fact, ds2 has hardly ever given me any trouble at all, bless him!

I find my 14 week old seems to prefer the right breast. She doesn't like lying on her right side to feed from my left breast. I think it might be colic related - she doesn't have the screaming, can't-do-anything-for-her-type colic that many babies get but she does often get really upset, stop-starts and cries, especially at the main bedtime, early evening feed. Dentinox colic medicine seems to really help & amazingly quickly. I'm hoping it's something she'll just grow out of. My worry is that I often swap sides to give her the preferred right breast but the left one doesn't seem to get swollen full as you'd expect it to - I'm worried it's scaled down the milk production as a consequence of not enough demand. Can breasts act independently like this? If your baby gets upset and bothered when feeding from the less-preferred breast it might be worth trying the dentinox colic drops. Good luck with it.

Yes, magscat, I think breasts can 'act independently' - not sure what to do about it though, as I have the same problem!

Fortunately, we seem to be back on track with feeding, although he hates there to be anything going on around him whilst feeding, even me talking! has anyone else got a touchy baby like this?!

I have the same problem too. Sorry, I don't have any advice, but wondered if it was possible to just feed from the one breast? My ds feeds quite happily from the left side, but will only feed on the right if it's really full, which is happening less and less often, because he doesn't really feed from it! Does anyone know if one-sided feeding is possible, or is it ill-advised?

Evansmummy - my friend bf for nine months from one side only. Twins do it too! So it is possible, but you'd probably be a bit lop-sided for a while.

The only way my ds will feed from the right is if he is sleepy. I never offer him it first as this will garuntee a screaming fit. I just give him the left first and then, when he is sleepy, I very quickly and smoothly transfer him. This usually works. It doesn't work if he is awake or windy. If this is the case, I just leave it and offer it again when he is ready for a nap. He has a dummy, so often whipping that out and breast in works!!

Wow, I thought bf was supposed to be easy!!!

my dd fed for 1st 2wks on both sides then only on right.... shes 5mths now and we are still on the right....we are so used to it now i dont even bother.. her weight gain is normal and my nipple is fine..

they told me to try her at the breast feeding clinic but shes happy enough..... so am i..

My dd2 (12 mo) only feeds from my right breast. She didn't like the left; at first she just had top-ups, then just one feed a day off it, and now it doesn't produce at all. She is thriving - the downside is I have one huge boob and one normal, so I look really lopsided! Dd2 sucks to sleep and has a cold so is sucking for ages, I've just found if she is sleepy I can put her on the left side to suck so am hoping it will start producing again to even me up a bit!

I have no personal experience but my chiropractor said in conversation that this is often a sign of something out of alignment and can be easily fixed with chiropractic adjustment.

Chiropractic has helped DS (11 weeks) with some other issues so might be worth a try (and for infants they don't do the same kind of contortionist manipulations they do on adults).

I think it could be possible for babies who've had tricky births, but my dd2 was a planned section.

We've had some cranial osteopathic treatment, which really helped at first, but has since made things worse, if that's possible. Anyway, that's another discussion! It's true that Evan will only feed off his less preferred side when tired. But I don't fancy being lopsided at all! We'll just try and muddle along.

Over the last couple of days my daughter has decided she's not that bothered which breast she'll have a screaming fit at, she just screams at both sometimes. She's got into a really bad cycle of feeding every 2 hours at night (she's never been great but was going at least 3 and sometimes 4 hours) and then not being hungry most of the morning. She only seems to want to feed properly when she's half asleep - otherwise she feeds for a few minutes then cries until I hold her upright. Pretty sure it's wind but don't know how to prevent it. Any ideas on how to break this cycle becuase not getting more than 2 hours sleep at a time is doing my head in!

How's it going Evansmummy??

Terrible here. Ds has decided that he will only feed properly at all if he is sleepy. He then feeds at a leisurely pace for 40mins or so and then won't go down for a sleep as he was sleeping whilst feeding.

If he feeds whilst awake, he takes the bare minimum, refuses more and then grizzles. I have to continue the feed when he is next sleepy. It's feeling as if I am always feeding him.

During the night he's feeding hourly.

Somethings got to give, but don't know what.

Any ideas??????????

Cheeky girl and magscat, it sounds exactly like my ds! For the last week - 10 days, he's screamed at nearly every feed. The only one that really works is the 2/3/4 am feed (the timing is random, he is still so inconsistent at night!). And now I've started dream feeding, that one works okay too, but he'll only feed off one side. He was starting to settle about a month ago, and things have just gone pear-shaped since his last osteopathic treatment. I am lucky though in that he's a very efficient feeder, has a good suck! So he gets what he needs in about 10 minutes maximum. It's funny too that our three babies all have about the same age. I read somewhere (here on MN maybe?) that babies around the 4 month mark go a bit skewiff, and that it does calm down after a couple of weeks,. But as for this one-sided feeding, perhaps we should just have the confidence to let them feed off the preferred side. And, bf it is far from easy!!! I wish someone had told me before that it could be this hard - at least I would have been better prepared!

If it helps at all, I have found expressing from the less preferred side helps maintain a balance and so I've been more relaxed about letting her feed from one side when she wants to. Seems to work ok. Lately though it's been just been that she screams either side unless she's really tired - like some other mums on the site have mentioned - she only feeds well when she;s half asleep. What's that about? One other thing that helps is to be in a really calm place - i.e. upstairs in darkened quiet room. Downstairs with 3 year old brother running round just makes her worse. (He was never this difficult at bf). Frustrating thing today was that she took an ounce and a half from a bottle for first time ever. Great in so far as it makes the idea of going back to work easier but now I'm worried she'll reject breast altogether (Health Visitor advised me to avoid bottle but easier said than done when you know she has to start nursery at some point).

Cheekygirl, Evansmummy - are you over the awkward stage with the feeding now? We're still having problems. DD still only wants to feed when sleepy and now hardly seems to want to feed at all in the morning time. She'll ahve 10 mins about 6am then go till lunchtime with barely more than a nibble - during which I try to feed her, she screams even though she seems hungry and if she gets tired then she might close her eyes & feed, otherwise she just seems upset unless I walk her about or really actively play with her. I've contacted NCT breastfeeding line but am waiting for them to ring back, Just wondered how you two are getting on. Hoping this is just a 'funny phase'.

Magscat - similar I'm afraid!! I would so love to be able to go out and feed him wherever and when ever we are. My whole life revolves around his feeds, as I have to make sure we are going to be at for them. Like you, ds feeds better if it's quiet and there are no distractions. Cbeebies gets shoved on for dd who is ever so good and really understands she has to be quiet when Will is feeding(she's 4). However, he only feeds for around 4 mins from one side if he's awake, even though he seems to still be hungry. I then have to wait until he is sleepy to offer the rest!

I'm really nervous about starting solids in case it puts him of bf all together. Same goes for the bottle, which I need to sort out as I'm going back to work at the end of June.......

That was supposed to be 'at home for them'!

I know what you mean about not being able to go out. I'm a bit gung ho about breast feeding in public. I'll do it almost anywhere - although stopped short of feeding while waiting for car to be fixed at Kwik Fit a few weeks back. Well I used to be - now it's a nightmare because of all the fussing and crying. I find it really limiting. THe last couple of days she seems to be feeding less and less as well. She had about 10 mins at 5am and 10 mins at 6am then a crying session and a maybe a few mouthfuls at 9.30ish then nothing till a half hour sleepy feed at lunchtime. Then more crying when I tried feeding her in the afternoon. I gave her some Dentinox about half five and she had a reasonable bedtime feed for half an hour between 6 & 7. Can't be enough though can it? Bet she'll be up loads in the night.
She has really smelly farts and hasn't pooed for a couple of days as well - it's like her digestive system has slowed down and it hurts when she feeds. Still waiting for NCT to ring back.

By the way, have you seen there's another thread on here: Breast and bottle feeding : pulling off the breast and making screechy inhaling noises with discomfort during and after feeds (14 messages) - there's a link that I've been reading - www.kellymom.com/bf/concerns/baby/fussy-while-nursing.html

• very interesting - especially the stuff about reflux. I heard back from the NCT - they suggested it's a 'nursing strike' (see other threads on mumsnet) but I'm not sure I agree - still think she's getting a pain somewhere when she's feeding. Hope some of this is useful.