Breast refusal only accepting bottle at 3 months

[Fring2]

Hi, my 12 week old has recently been refusing the breast more and more and getting into a hysterical state when it’s offered. She would normally be fussy in the evenings, but once she’d slept a bit she would feed in the middle of the night off the breast okay.

Recently she’s just flat out refusing it 😞 I was only planning on breast feeding until mid April anyway but this has really thrown me and I’m so upset by it.

I’ve seen breastfeeding strikes can happen at this time, has anyone had any experience of this? Do they then accept the breast back naturally? I’ve been bottle feeding expressed milk as a final resort.

I’ve cried quite a lot this morning over this, I don’t know why. I can still pump and feed her that breast milk but I feel some kind of loss that she doesn’t want/need the breast anymore.
I did see on another post about someone who stopped breastfeeding completely and they mentioned they didn’t realise the fog in their head that breastfeeding caused and they felt so much better after stopping. Is this something anyone else can relate to? Current lack of sleep and emotions all over the place make me wonder if I should just slowly wean off breast feeding now and move towards formula. I feel like I’ve let myself down and feel so lost about it. I know this is the rumoured “mum guilt” which I didn’t think I’d get but it’s hit me so hard and I feel so sad. I have to ask on forums like this as if I tried to speak this out loud to someone I’d just cry and choke up.

My DD (She's 26 now!) refused after 3 months, I had struggled to get her to latch on so I'd been using a nipple shield. I did feel guilty, but to be honest, she was so much happier, I pumped then gradually started formula.

So at 26, she's fit, healthy, happy, there were no adverse effects on her during her childhood.

You'll always have mum guilt over something, try not to focus too hard on her refusing. Sounds like yours might be as feisty and independent as mine!

Breast feeding is championed as the gold standard for infant nutrition because it is slightly better for them. Especially as you have a winter baby and those antibodies have been working their magic keeping germs away. You should be proud of yourself for that.
honestly though, in the long run, especially when that sweet baby is a sweaty teen living on Big Macs and energy drinks, here on out it makes no difference. In a few weeks you’ll be offering the first foods and then by two they’ll have eaten crayons and far more more moldy cheerios from the car seat than you can possibly comprehend.
so relax. If baby doesn’t want boob anymore it’s okay. You’ve already completed the important bit you’ve given them those first weeks of super immunity. If you end up moving on to formula now it’s absolutely fine. Enjoy the freedom and body autonomy

My daughter went through a period of only breastfeeding for 5-10 seconds at a time during the day and only if lying down

Things that caused it were fast letdown, reflux and allergies. There will be other things that could give the same effect. It might be worth getting a feeding assessment. Only we got her allergies undercontrol and her feeding aversion were a really early sign that she reacted to the food I had just eaten. The quickest reaction was about 15 minutes after me eating a beef burger

I can totally understand how you're feeling, stopping BFong can be an emotional time and you'll have and upheaval in your hormones but BFing should end when one or the other of you has had enough and I think your LO has decided that they are showing a clear preference for the bottle.

If you were going to stop in 2 months anyway I'd just start offering more formula and gradually reduce your pumping sessions so that you don't go cold turkey and risk getting mastitis.