She's given up on milk!

[Strangeness]

Well Tamzin has always been a complete fuss bum from the age of 12 weeks when it comes to breastfeeding. She refuses to have formula and will not take a bottle of EBM. For the last week or two she has cut back on milk loads, which I thought was fine because she is on solids now but she was still having breastfeeds during the day. Today she has totally refused point blank to have any breast milk. Everytime I put the boob near her she has a screaming fit and flatly refuses to latch on. Even her morning feed which was her fave one she refused! She's eating solids fine and will drink juice but I don't know what to do! She won't take EBM in a cup even but will have juice. My son was never a fan of milk but would have some at least but she will not have any! What do I do? I know how important milk is but I can't force it down her. Will she be ok? I'm so worried that she's not having anything!

 

[lisa282]

Do you mix her food with some EBM hun? Thats the one thing I would do to try and get some into her, even if its only a few oz a day, its better than nothing! She may just be having a nursing strike and will be back to normal within a couple of days, or perhaps teething which might put her off her milk? We have been through both in recent weeks, and Eden has been a little minx refusing to feed sometimes, but its never for longer than 24 hours then she strikes up again cos she is starving! The other thing is perhaps cut down on the amount of solids she is having, so she is still hungry, then you can top up with milk? Not sure if this helps at all really, but i noticed nobody else had replied! Good luck! x

 

[Strangeness]

Thanks for your reply hun I've been mixing every solid thing she has with milk to try and get some into her. She had a breast feed this morning for a few minutes but since then has refused again. She's so happy until I try to feed her from the boob and then she gets so upset! I tried a bottle again yesterday and a cup of milk but once again she starts crying so I think it's the taste of milk that she suddenly has an aversion to. My mum said we all did this as babies and said I shouldn't be worried but I can't help it! I think she'd quite happily go without eating for most of the day cept for yogurts! My boobs are in agony and I'm expressing as much as possible but I can never do it as well as she can so they just hurt all the time

 

[lisa282]

Im not sure if this will help you at all, but Im sure you know most babies feed quite contentedly without fussing when they are sleepy, so have you considered trying to dreamfeed her while she is drowsy? She might latch on whilst on auto-pilot without actually fully waking up iykwim? I appreciate if you dont wanna try it, depends if you think she would fully wake if you disturbed her or not really. Just desperately trying to rack my brains for ideas! Is she well in herself, no colds or sore throat etc which might put her off suckling? Just keep persevering hun, hopefully she will get back to normal soon, fingers crossed it is just a silly nursing strike x

 

[Strangeness]

Thanks for all your help hun! I've managed to get 2 huge feeds into her a day now which isn't a lot but better than nothing! I have carried on putting milk into her solids though to keep her going and yogurts. She seems happy enough though so I dunno what it is!

 

[BabyMagic]

Could she be teething? My LO cried when trying to latch just a few days before her teeth cut through - we haven't had problems since her bottom teeth came through (hoping she'll be ok when top teeth make their way)...

Apparently, latching can hurt their gums when teething x