My nearly 8 month old DS2 has recently become v difficult to BF. He often refuses to BF and gets upset and squirms away.
As a newborn he was very 'suckey' so I introduced a dummy at about 4 weeks (the alternative was to sit for hours with a little finger inserted!). He is now totally in love with the dummy and prefers it to feeding, he uses it to settle and only when he is all but fast asleep can I atempt to start feeding. This would be OK except I know he is taking less milk because my breasts still feel quite full after the feed. He is also not v keen on EBM either, he used to take the occaisional feed from a NUK or Avent bottle but not anymore.
Exclusively BFing went fairly well with only a couple of problems (2 v short-lived feeding strikes)for the first 6 months but the trouble seems to have started since weaning.
He eats 3 good sized solid meals a day and is a happy wee soul otherwise.
He also gets up once in the night for a feed which usually goes down without any problems.
Would there be any mileage in ditching the dummy altogether? It would be v difficult for a week or two but if he eventually fed better as a result surely it would be worthwhile?
DS1 was BF until he was 22 months with no problems at all, I'd just like to get to 12 months with DS2 and am gutted at the thought of BF not working out (not to mention the faff of formula feeding).
Any advice or suggestions gratefully accepted!