8 week old, refusing breast

[Evie135]

Hi all.
My LO is 8 weeks today. We have been breastfeeding from birth. We introduced a dummy and a bottle of expressed milk in the evenings from 5 weeks. She has maintained her weight on the 75th centile throughout.
Over the past week her feeding has changed. It is a battle to get her to latch, she usually screams and arches and refuses to latch on. The dummy is the only thing to soothe her and moving her away from the breast. I do have a fast let down but she’s not even getting to the point of this as she won’t latch. She is pleasant in between times and has lots of wet and dirty nappies still. She also winds well.
Any advice before I give up our breastfeeding?!

Had the same problem, but with us started on week 6 and by week 9 it went back to normal. My DS didn't want to latch, would arch his back, move away from the breast etc, it was a battle to feed him. The thing that worked for us was feeding while lying down. As I said it all went back to normal after a few weeks, and now he can feed in any position. Lactation consultant I've seen said it might be just a temporary position problem, as baby grows and his body changes weight, maybe he found it more uncofortable with cradle position.

Any issues with reflux? It's common for them to refuse feeds with reflux because it's basically painful for them to eat.

Any changes in your diet that could be passing onto your milk?

Will they take a bottle without fuss?

Maybe give her a bit longer between feeds? As babies getting bigger they get more efficient at sucking, and fill their tummies faster. If she's definitely hungry, then it's probably a position issue.

Does she just need a distraction? My dd used to do this, I started feeding her in my son's bedroom, he had a car track on the wall. I'd turn it on over my shoulder and she would latch on and feed because she was distracted. It only lasted a few days then she went back to no fuss feeding.

I would say reflux too, always difficult to tell with a breast feed baby. The other reason, would be, hate to say it, is there any chance you could be pregnant. My DS1 refused to feed before I knew I was pregnant was DS2, although very unlikely as your baby is just 8wks, so don’t panic.

Have you googled nursing strike?

I have 2 tips for this. Share a bath, no pressure on baby to feed. My baby always feeds loads in the bath with me, I try to make time once a week now for it (8 months).

My baby girl went on strike about 4 months, it really stressed me after my little boy having full milk and solid feeding aversion for over a year. But for breastfeeding at least, the tips worked. I put on some easy TV and just had me and baby girl naked except pants and nappy in bed, no pressure, for a couple of days, so she could latch on/off as she liked. It helps that we are side laying co sleeping feeders already. The skin on skin relaxed time is meant to be brilliant for helsing nursing strikes :)

I'd be surprised if you'd gotten to 8 weeks without thinking of reflux, but that could also be it. My little boy had severe reflux/failure to thrive and cmpa, but he was really obvious with it.

Hi all,
thanks so much for your replies. After a tough 24hours she has started feeding a bit better. Still not 100% but I’m much happier. At times I’m having to wait until she is almost asleep then latch her on.
she was a little snuffly so I wonder did she have a wee infection that was annoying her.
she wasn’t great with her bottle but it was easier to give as she would just pull my nipple whereas the bottle doesn’t hurt 🙈
we still have a bit to improve on again but I appreciate all your help x

Yes a sore throat can definitely cause a nursing strike. We got through it with syringe feeding and lying down nursing right when a nap was due so he was drowsy. It worked and he was back to normal in 2 days.