Fussy Nursing

[TnT]

I started back to work last week and DH stayed home with 3 month old DS. We are using Dr Brown bottles for feedings while I am at work. Since then he does not want to nurse during the day. He sucks a little and cries and pulls away. He will keep fussing until I give him the bottle of BM. He will nurse at night still when he is half asleep. I really want him to nurse when we are together but now I don't know if he will so I am having to pack bottles to go out in public which sucks b/c I would rather nurse. Any suggestions?

[nuthinbutpink]

Well, my DS did the same thing to me. I started to supplement because I could not fill him up while nursing and he would scream after BF due to hunger. Once I started supplementing, he got worse though, lazy I guess, and it got to the point that he would fight me anytime I tried to nurse, even like you describe when it is in the middle of the night and he was sleepy. So, I gave up:(

He would scream so hard and so loud, the only thing that would satisfy him was a bottle and with 4 kids, I did not have time to pump, then feed, and take care of the house and cart everyone to school, dance, etc.

Maybe someone has some advice and hopefully can help you through this.

[grasshopper]

Breast refusal can happen for a huge number of reasons...do you have a slow let-down? Could be that he finds the bottle easier as the flow is instant and probably faster so he doesn't have to work as hard. Breast refusal is most often temporary and sometimes you just need to try things a little differently to coax them back to the breast. Maybe you could try expressing a bit before he feeds to get the flow going...he might just be getting frustrated that he can't get the milk as fast as with the bottle.
Hopefully this is just a short intitial adjusting period while you get a good work/home balance happening.
Good luck and hopefully you can both work through it soon and get back into a happy rhythm.

[Mom2RJA]

Grasshopper has some good suggestions. It is a lot harder to get milk out of a breast than out of a bottle, so he might be getting frustrated that he doesn't have instant gratification. Getting a let-down started before you try to latch him on could really help. I don't have any personal experience with this since my babies would never really take a bottle (and I never went back to work). I'm glad to see that he's still nursing at night--that's a good sign that this might be temporary and that he'll go back to the breast. Where is he while you're working? There are baby feeding methods that are more like the breast, such as finger-feeding, but they are more time consuming than giving a bottle, so I don't know how likely that is to be an option for you.

[TnT]

Thanks ladies. Yay for the natural parenting section! I have a fast, overactive letdown that he seemed to be doing better with as he's gotten older. Starting tomorrow he will be at a daycare center. They are great and will cloth diaper him but I don't think they will agree to anything but bottles. I'm thinking now maybe its a firmness/texture thing. I tried a nipple shield and he was all about it. I used it for the first half of the feeding and then as he got sleepy, took it away and he nursed to sleep. So we are doing better but I'm not sure I will ever be able to go out without a bottle. Unless this is just a phase and he adjusts. Hopefully. Feeding him by pumping I have about 15 oz per day left over to freeze so my supply is awesome and if I end up only having him nurse at night we'll survive. I just enjoy the closeness of nursing him. :(

[nuthinbutpink]

TnT- how did your first day back at work go...getting the kids where they need to be, etc?

[Orchid]

DS went through this because of my over active let down and over supply. The milk was spraying all over his mouth and he was DONE. What helped was to just nurse him from one side all day and then pump the other side and then feed him from that side all night. But after I started work my supply adjusted itself may be because of lack of sucking during the day and that automatically kinda slowed down my let down too. Life got much better. I could nurse DS standing in the rest rooms/changing rooms etc. I could never NIP sitting down anywhere. Weird, something about the position. I never gave DS a bottle unless I was at work. Even if he fussed his option was only to nurse while mommy was around. I HATED pumping and tried hard to avoid supplementing. It was hard but got through it. Hope everything is ok with you now.

[TnT]

@NBP well we survived the first 2 days of 3 kids at daycare. lots of planning and organization!

He is doing ok with nursing...not as great and he prefers if I use a nursing shield. I'm going to keep encouraging him at the breast. thanks ladies!

[atomic sagebrush]

I don't have any advice because I haven't experienced this, but I just wanted to wish you the very best of luck!!!!