Breastfeeding aversion

[EleMar]

My 3 month old has been refusing the breast for the past two weeks - he screams as soon as I put him in the cradle position. I can only feed him when drowsy / asleep or whilst bouncing on the pregnancy ball. I'm feeling quite emotional about the situation, it breaks my heart to think we are near the end of our breastfeeding journey.

I think the aversion might have been caused by my strong letdown - I have multiple subsequent letdowns where the milk sprays in multiple directions. He coughs / complains / gulps down so much air whilst feeding him (unless he is asleep). I have ordered some nipple shields as I have read they could help.

I'd be so grateful to hear your stories and any advice. For example, I have now started to focus on getting him to be comfortable in the cradle position. Any tips?

Thank you.

Hand express off the initial let down. And then when you’ve taken some out your boobs they will be less pressured and forceful

Try feeding in other positions like lying back

Try laid back and koala holds, also persevere if you don't want this to be the end...I had this and each feed was a battle for a while but she grew out of it. Keep trying different positions, mine was hating cradle and cross cradle because she wanted to be able to look around while feeding. I think it's quite common at this age - you can look up 3 months nursing strike.

Thank you all! It seems to finally be improving thankfully. Still he likes when I walk around the room whilst feeding him :)

You might also try pressing around the nipple to restrict how much milk is coming out.

I personally push down on my opposite nipple and lay back while feeding this seems to help with let down

Hi , I have a similar situation. My daughter is 14 weeks but the last few weeks feeding has been so hard with lots of crying every time my milk is let down - unless she has just woken up from a nap/a night feed! Did you find anything else that helped? Or do you think your baby just grew out of the phase?

My baby is now 6 months old and it is no longer a probelm. I think it's the to a combination of him being bigger and more in control of feeding, and me focussing on not pressuring / over offering the breast. For example, whilst he was fine in the pram as a newborn, once he became more alert, he started complaining in the pram - he would start crying after say 10 minutes or so. Initially I thought he must be hungry (as clean nappy, rested, no burps etc.), as he didn't occur to me he just didn't like the pram anymore. So I'd stop and try to feed him but actually he wasn't hungry. If that makes sense? I guess I should have realised my baby was transitioning from newborn (with a smaller / limited set of 'complaints') to a baby with more defined and varied preferences, wants and feelings.