Help Me Get Back to Breastfeeding!!

I know its been said before but call le leche league, if you haven't already. They are very helpful.

I will suggest you the things that helped me when my supply didn`t flow; Healthy Nursing Tea by secrets of tea which is herbs tea and preservatives free...

When I was nursing my children (my youngest is now 19) I belonged to a group called La Leche League.
I don't know if they are still around but if they are you should give them a call.
They were a group of mothers who mentored each other through nursing and their help was invaluable for me.
By the way the same thing happened with my youngest.
I didn't even go out of town but was working, and was able to nurse him at lunch as there was childcare on-site.
nurse he also refused in the exact same way.
I didn't call LLL but I wish I had!

Unfortunately, bottle- feeding is much easier for a baby than breastfeeding, so its not uncommon for a baby to start refusing the breast in favor of the bottle. My milk was insufficient, so I had to give my son a bottle after every feeding, and eventually he just refused the breast at all. (Luckily, this didn't happen until almost 6 mos. for me). I agree with the suggestions you've gotten: try feeding him a bit earlier than usual, so that he may be more patient, and ask your pediatrician or OBGYN for a referral to a lactation consultant. You should also make sure that you are using slow-flow bottle nipples (so your son has to work harder at the bottle), and you might consider hand-expressing a tiny bit of milk before feeding so your son doesn't have to wait for let-down. Good luck!

It is easier to get milk from a bottle than the breast. Baby doesn't really have to do anything, whereas at the breast his whole mouth and tongue and jaws are involved. Slow flow/newborn nipples might help so he has to work a little harder at bottlefeeding.

The other thing is you might need to "woo" him back to breast. Lots of skin to skin time, maybe take a bath together, soothing rocking skin to skin. Help him be near your breasts without forcing a feeding. Also, when you offer, don't push. Trying to feed him during sleepy times, nighttime or nap might also help.

Call La Leche League www.llli.org they might have other ideas.

Good luck!

Probably just a short "nursing strike", and will pass soon. Keep pumping if he won't nurse for now, and keep trying until he decides we is ready to go back to it! Good luck.

I haven't had this particular problem, but my DD sometimes will refuse my right side, (she'll arch her back, ball up her fists, etc.). When she does this, I try a different position, like I will lay down with her or I will turn her over to the football position, which always works. You may also try offering your breast to him when he isn't acting hungry because once they reach that ravished stage, there is no reasoning with them.

Good luck ~ J

I have a friend who has been breastfeeding for over 1 year and her daughter will not absolutely drink any other milk so consider yourself lucky, and maybe your milk tastes very different and not to your childs likening, do not feel guilty but go and make money.

I say keep trying. My son went through phases when he didn't want to nurse, and a couple times I thought he was self-weaning. I kept offering though, and he would start up again after a few days. Make sure you keep pumping and do all you can to keep your supply up: drink TONS of water, eat oatmeal, possibly take fenugreek, etc. I recommend this site a lot, but it helped me so much while I was nursing: www.kellymom.com -they have basically any information you might need on breastfeeding.

Good luck!

Great suggestions already! Just keep working on it - also it might be useful to wake him at nite since he nurses best when he's sleepy - I know that is violating a golden rule of motherhood- but the impact on his sleep is minimal. It could also be that your milk supply is low (not uncommon for working mothers when they take that time away), thus he may not be getting enough from the breast, thus the bottle preference. Although as other say that could be the nipple and is not an unusual problem. One other thought would be to bottlefed a little at first to take away the hunger and then switch to the breast. Or try a feeding tube (with pumped milk) while you nurse to get him back to associating the breast with the milk.

Also, please do contact llli - there is likely hundreds of years of experience of nursing mothers available through that organization.

I dealt with similar difficulties with my first son who was in ICU, but I was able to get him back to breastfeeding well, along with the bottle, so it is very possible.

I'm just starting nursing myself and my lactation consultant recommended a bottle called Breastflow bottles by First Years. I got them at Babies R Us. They have an insert inside the nipple that requires the baby to suck like he's nursing for milk to come. The nipples are also soft to 'resemble' natural nursing. They have different flows and the slow flow is the one we are using now at 5 weeks. For 2 weeks solid I bottle fed breast milk b/c it hurt to nurse and I wasn't sure how much milk he was getting. After I did that for 2 weeks I decided to go back to nursing him and he does it with no problem. He'll go back and forth b/t nursing and bottle with these. Other bottles we first tried were way too fast. You'd turn them over and milk would start coming out. Not with these. Worth a try! Good Luck!