Please help - 3 month old refusing breast

[Amy72]

My 12 week old baby boy has suddenly started to refuse the breast and starts crying / screaming when I try to put him in the nursing position.

A change of position worked breifly on Sunday, as did nipple sheilds, however nothing seems to work now.

I have scoured websites for tips. I am trying lots of skin to skin contact, tried him when he was sleepy, but he continues to get extremley distressed until he gets a feed with a bottle.

I have succesfully combined breast and bottle over the past month or so, but I cannot cope with his refusal.

I feel absolutley desperate and can not bear the thought of not feeding him again.

Please can anyone else help or let me know if they've had a similar experience. It has left me feeling distraught.

Thank you

could he be teething? perhaps try some teething gel before a feed to see if that helps?

I assume he's been eating from a bottle if its been going on since Sunday. We had a nursing strike and it took alot of determinatioon. Breast only and if she she didn't feed then so be it. During the day she'd often cry through a feed and fall asleep. Then when she was asleep or having just woke up and still drowsy I could then get her to feed. Saw an improvement on day 3 and another few days before back to normal. At night I gave her an extra dream feed. hth and good luck

def could be teething, DS1 started teething at that point, got teeth at 4.5 months. Keep an eye out for red cheeks, dribbling, gnawing on fist. Give calpol if red cheeks, and put teething gel on gums before feed if you think it is teething.

Oh sweetie this happenned to me at exactly the same time and I was distraught. It went on for a week on and off. All I did was express feeds and just keep offering boob especially when DD was drowsy until she got over it.

I still don't know what caused it. My suspicion was that she had a growth spurt and for a couple of days I just wasn't producing fast enough so she was screaming in frustration. She took a bottle as the flow was more consistent.

Stick at it and you will ride it out. It's tough though and hard not to take it personally. Mine has just started refusing bottles of EBM if it's any consolation

Thank you so much for your replies and support. I have just felt so sad over this. Today was much better he fed in the night, this morning and lunch time, his afternoon feed was more fussy and he didn't take much before screaming in hunger which was hard after the day seemed to show an improvement.

I would be really interested to know if this is the same as others experience, that the return to the breast is not a sudden shift but gradual with some 'off' feeds ?

Thanks again all your responses and support is really appreciated

This was a similar pattern for me Amy. DD gradually returned to normal over the week starting with nightime, then mornings with afternoons and evenings being the last - I suspect because milk tends to flow slower at that time of day.

Thank you again. It's so reassuring that you experienced it and got through it. DS has fed well this morning so feel much better. Did you bottle feed in the afternoons / evenings until it rectified ?

Both of mine went through this phase. I just pressed on with the BF and then had the opposite problem a year later: I couldn't wean for the life of me.

I did breast only. My DD went 8 hours without anything once. I was travelling abroad at the time and didn't have any bottle parephinalia on me, just my boobs. In the end I found she would feed really well if I was lying down in a dark room on a bed. Sometimes they get overstimulated during the day.