Help, rejecting BF :(

DS is completely rejecting the breast.
He hadn't eaten for four hours (long time for him) and was really overtired and hungry. He wouldn't latch on and just kept crying. Would take a dummy though. I figured he was really tired and just too worked up to eat. I could hear his wee tummy rumbling, I thought he must be starving.
So we gave him his bath early (bath fixes everything), figure that'd calm him down then I'd BF him to sleep.
But no, he wouldn't latch. Again, he would take the dummy though.
I was worried that I was starving the wee man so I gave him a bottle of EBM, he gulped that down in seconds. Yep, he was hungry. Thought that wasn't enough milk, so tried again with breast. No, not having a bar of it. Happy to take the dummy though.
What do I do? He's so into the dummy and bottle the breast doesn't have a chance.
Usually he gets a bottle a day at his dream feed. Used to be EBM but we've just changed that to formula (he's had formula 4 times). He's mega dependant on his dummy for getting to sleep and often won't sleep if it falls out. So maybe I've created this problem for myself but no idea how to fix it.
Please help, I don't want him to self wean off the breast at 3 months.

isn't he to young for marmite?
I mean I have heard of this before, though can't remember the age of the baby in the story.
Not sure what I'm going to do. There's no more EBM, so I guess at the next feed time he eats or starves.

Thanks HeidisMum. Did you keep using the dummy? I'm wondering if I should try getting rid of it.
Though I don't what I'll do when he's screaming without that wonderful bit of rubber.

Some babies do just self-wean in case nothing you try works. My little brother went on a feeding strike round the same age coz he was a total guts and just found he could get his food easier from the bottle. Nothing mum tried worked and in the end it just had to be bottle. Hopefully you find the trick to getting him to latch on but yeah if you don't you aren't alone

Isaacs Mum - we continued using the dummy till DD was approx 5 -6 months old. She only ever had it for naps and nighttime, I never really fed her to sleep, but she used the dummy to settle. I ended up having to get up so many times a night to put it back in thats why we got rid of it.

Thought of something else you could try and thats hand or pump express just before you feed just to get the let down and then see if she will feed, as she won't have to work to much to get the milk.

Take a look at kellymom.com - has heaps of info about BF. Also weegee and fattartsrock are brilliant for BFing advice - try PMing them.

Could it be that he's just sooo shattered to breast feed this particular time? I've been told that it's quite hard work so if he's super tired, it may be just this once.....

Maybe feed him just before he wakes, or wake him earlier so he's not super hungry?

Also are you ov'ing? Baby's can get really fussy on the boob when that's happening.

Hmm maybe we had a nursing strike and I didn't even realise lol that would be right.

Talk to plunket take him to bed with you and feed lying down, when DD was ultra fussy she would only feed in the football hold while I was leaning to the side to begin with yep I know that was fun. Sometimes now she has a screaming match with me and will only feed football hold but I think thats because she wants to look up at me and its a whole lot easier that way. I've quite often looked down at her when she's like this and she is staring intently at me. Try lying down with him and feeding we do this early morning and because I'm too tired to wake up with her.

Good luck hope you work it out! I would think that only one bottle a day isn't going to make him prefer the bottle over the breast but I could be wrong

I have the similar problems with my daughter Madison. She is 5 months old. But the problem is she has been a struggle to breastfeed since she was about 4 weeks old. I am still perservering with it but I found that when I am most calm she feeds ok and always feeds best at her dream feed when she is basically asleep. I have always found she is too nosey to feed when she is very alert and awake but I do get the screaming matches. But she is gaining good weight etc

I will tell you her feeds mostly last from 3 minutes to 10 minutes max (hardly ever 10 minutes) and this had worried me for ages as after 3 minutes I would try and feed her more but she didn't want a bar of it so I just stopped when she wanted and she seems perfectly happy doing it that way. but I did try the marmite thing and she just latched on but came off as soon as the marmite was gone!