My ds is 5 months and feeds less and less. He has been exclusively breastfed up to a couple of weeks ago when I started weaning him on the advice of my HV and GP as his lack of interest in feeding was causing his weight gain to tail off and he was dipping below the 25th centile (born on the 75th and didn't lose any weight). He does have a cold and nasty cough at the moment but even before that, he feeds less and less, rarely clocks up 10 mins and never feeds from the second side. Today he has fed four times for less than five minutes each time (and had a bit of pear and rice and a then bit of sweet potato). He's got a bedtime feed in a couple of hours but last night that was a disaster and he barely ate and then cried himself to the point of exhaustion despite cuddling, winding, offering more etc etc. Sometimes it is wind or noise in the room that stops him feeding, and at the moment the cough is troubling him too, but mostly he just gets upset about some unknown thing, pulls off, starts crying, keeps his head turned away from me and that's it for another couple of hours. He only ever feeds well when he basically falls asleep and dream feeds. The GP checked for an ear infection but ruled it out.
I just called the National Breastfeeding Helpline but my local volunteer is not answering ...
Any suggestions for persuading him to eat? He doesn't take a bottle. Would be so grateful for any thoughts please as I am trying to be a calm Mummy but starting to find this infuriating and distressing!