I am SAHM..My DS is exclusively breast fed and has been since day one. (occassionally he gets some formula).Of course I do pump and I give him a bottle before he goes to bed and also another bottle while I dreamfeed..But other than that rest of the day I have been nursing..But for the past 3 days LO has been refusing to eat from me..Every time I sit to nurse him he is crying a lot...So I end up giving him a bottle and also pump later on... The only time I am able to nurse him is for the feeding @ 5 AM. He is still sleepy so I guess he doesn't care if it's the bottle or the breast..But even for that I have to coax him to nurse... I am almost ready to give up nursing because I don't want him to cry for every feeding... Can weaning happen at such an early age? I guess I just have to keep pumping Is anybody going through this or has gone through this?
Mridusudha, Hugs BM is the best that you can give your baby in the first yr of life. I cudnt BF my elder DD from her 3months, which i regret till date. I do feel bad that I didnt become an ex-pumper. There are many ex-pumpers here. Wait for others reply. Try out things that others suggest. If something works for EBF, nothing like it. Otherwise, get advices on ex-pumping. Somehow LO should get BM. If he is happy with bottles, then thats fine too )))) :thumbsup
Hi Mridhusudha, I understand your situation- I am a mom of a 7.5 week old. I was doing the exact same thing as you- breastfeeding him directly and top feeding him with a couple of unces of pumped milk during evening hours (Some reason he's more hungry at that time). Last week, all of a sudden he started refusing the breast by sucking in a way that would hurt my nipple and he wouldn't get any milk. But he would readily guzzle down a bottle of milk. I stopped bottle feeding him (fed him pumped milk directly using a cup with my mom's help) and he got back on the breast within 24 hours. So I guess it was some sort of "nipple confusion". So if you want to continue breastfeeding, for the time being instead of bottle feeding, try other methods of "Supplemental feeding" methods. He will get back to the breast again as he needs to "forget" the bottle nipple way of sucking.
Mridusudha, I do not have any personal experience but sounds like a nursing strike to me. Have you googled "nursing strike"? I have heard that this happens in babies older than 3 months where breastfeeding is well-established and is sometimes mistaken for weaning. Good Luck.
i was going to write the same, pavarun. pls google on nursing strike, and follow whatever is right for your situation. my DS was on nursing strike the whole of last week. and i was getting worked up. you can see my thread in Breastfeeding/formula section of IL. our ladies have provided some brilliant suggestions. i also followed the ideas of kellymom. i took off for couple of days off (+weekend) to bring my DS back to schedule and it definitely is worth it. i wouldn't think letting a 4.5 months wean off so easily is a good idea. self-weaning cannot happen so early. its just a nursing strike that you can easily work out. take care, mridusudha.
Thanks to you all for the quick replies.. And definitely a special thanks to Pavarun for telling me about "Nursing strike"... I think that's what my LO was going through..DS is drooling so I am thinking may be he started to teeth but I don't find his gums swollen..So don't know if teething is the cause for Nursing strike.. Anyways, normally my DS used to feed 10-12 mins on each side..Last week for the first 3 days DS nursed only on one side that too for 6-8 mins..I thought may be he is not that hungry..So I didn't bother...But starting 4th day until yesterday(Day 7) he just did not want to nurse at all...That's when I was really getting worried... Anyways, I did go through Kellymom.com and got real good tips...So this morning (Day 8) @ 5:30AM he nursed well because he was sleepy...And @ 9 AM, did not want to nurse at all though he was hungry...Finally he nursed for 6 mins on one side...Took a nap..At the end of the nap @ 10:30 when he stirred I went and nursed him..He did pretty good..Now again @ 1:30 PM he stirred while napping..So I picked him up and nursed him...He nursed both sides..So I am happy.. But I hope this feeding while sleepy does not continue forever because I don't want him to get habituated...Next time I will try nursing him while awake and see what happens.. So keeping my fingers crossed and I hope DS continues to nurse.. Thanks again for all your replies
