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MamaT 
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 Topic: My baby won’t nurse
Posted: 12 April 2010 at 10:05am |
After looking at the KellyMom site I'm starting to wonder if he is on a "nursing strike".
Friday was the worst day we have had since Cooper was born, he just wouldn't feed. As soon as I held him in the feeding position he would just scream and cry. I spent about an hour trying to get him to feed properly with calming him (and myself) and then offering him the breast again. He was obviously hungry as he kept mouthing and was grizzly like he does when he's hungry but I just couldn't get him to latch for more than a few seconds at a time. He had also had two dry nappies that day.
Saturday was fine. He was back to feeding properly, had lots of wet nappies and a couple of dirty ones too.
Sunday was fine until the late afternoon and I was back to what we had on Friday. He had a great feed at 12pm (half an hour of nursing compared to his usual 10-15min), but I couldn't get him to feed again. Usually he goes 2.5 - 3 hours between feeds. At 3pm he wouldn't feed so I kept trying every half hour after that and finally got a reasonable amount into him at 5pm. He feeds really well during the night though.
This morning we seem to be going through the same thing.
I'm getting so stressed out and upset about it and I just don't know what to do to get him to feed properly.
Has anyone been through this and come out the other side? Any advice or suggestions?
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weegee
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Posted: 12 April 2010 at 10:38am |
 Just wanted to offer you some hugs, lots of people go through this and come out the other side, although I haven't had personal experience of it with such a little one. You're obviously arming yourself with as much information as possible which is a great idea. Only concrete suggestion I have is to give your local LLL a call (details here, you're in Palmy right?) - at the very least they will be able to give phone support, and they may be able to come and visit you and offer some suggestions about positioning etc that might help.
If he's still not feeding and you have the opportunity, try to express some off to keep up your supply
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Mum to JJ, 4 July 2008 & Addie, 28 July 2010
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weegee
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Posted: 12 April 2010 at 10:39am |
Oh another thing is that sometimes they can go on a nursing strike when they have something up like an ear infection? So might be a good idea to get him checked out at the doctors
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Mum to JJ, 4 July 2008 & Addie, 28 July 2010
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HippyMama
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Posted: 12 April 2010 at 12:27pm |
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I was just about to suggest getting him checked for an ear infection - my DD2 has just recovered from a pretty bad one on one side, and wouldn't feed lying down on it for a couple of days.
You could also get him checked out by a cranial osteopath in case he is sore anywhere else?
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Mama to two earth walkers & two angels.
Remember, you are not managing an inconvenience; You are raising a human being. ~ Kittie Franz
Next Slingbabies! Meet - Friday 4th May !!
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MamaT
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Posted: 12 April 2010 at 1:25pm |
Thanks ladies.
He does start to get really upset when I lay him on his side to feed so perhaps the ear thing is something to get looked at.
My doctor did suggest the osteopath for his reflux so I think I'll do that too.
Thanks for the link re: LLL weegee.
I've been following what kellymom suggests and just been cuddling him lots and giving him skin to skin. He did have a reasonable feed at 12.30pm and has been asleep since then. So hopefully it is the start of a turn around
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JAFAjaffa
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Posted: 12 April 2010 at 2:53pm |
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Hey, we went through EXACTLY the same thing at around the same age. I think it was 3 or 4 days later of hit and miss feeding and he was back to normal. It was horrible at the time, I was so worried, but he was no worse off afterwards. The only was Alex would feed was if I distracted him and pulled faces and sang songs while I was putting the nipple in his mouth - then it seemed to be okay. It got quite exhausting after a while!
The other thing that made it a bit better was going somewhere quiet to feed - I was feeding in front of the TV and Alex would go from having a fit to wriggling so he could stare at it. Not cool!
Like I said, 3-4 days later it was all back to normal but stressful while it lasted.
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blondy
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Posted: 12 April 2010 at 4:54pm |
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We survived 2 nursing strikes, each lasting 3-4 days....so try not to stress too much (I know, easier said than done!)
Just keep offering boob, but don't force it and try not to get upset with your DS if he does refuse. I found the only way DD would feed was to give her a dreamfeed while she was asleep, and she actually had a few good feeds like that, so she wasn't actively fighting it!
Do get him checked out by the GP though, just to make sure nothing else is wrong.
Hugs, because it is such a stressful thing to go through!
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ScottishPixie
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Posted: 12 April 2010 at 7:49pm |
Hey Hope2Be 
We went through a very similar scenario when Fin was about the same age (he's now almost 5 months) and the thing that confused me was that he fed well at night too. The GP reckoned it was reflux but I wasn't so sure - but don't have any qualifications to really have known for sure. So I went to an osteo who thought I might be overfeeding! She referred me to a lactation consultant who was amazing. Turned out it was possibly down to advice that Plunket had given me about the cluster feeding time of night. I had been advised to switch him regularly from side to side (every 5 minutes), four times every hour for 4-5 hours at that time of night. This increased my supply hugely and meant that every time poor wee Fin went to feed the milk was hitting him in the soft palate and making him choke, arch his back, cry, reject me etc, plus he then had a fore/hind milk imbalance. It was AWFUL so even if it's not the same issue for you I totally get how you're feeling  I ended up having to re-teach him the latch that he had as a newborn to minimise the choking and also I 'block fed' him on one side every 3 hours. It took about a week to resolve and he's now a happy wee nipper, except that whole episode totally screwed his sleep patterns so we're now just getting on top of those too!!!
What's going on for you is probably something completely different, but if you have fast let-down and your milk squirts everywhere when your wee one comes off, it may be worth considering? In any case, it's great to read that others have gotten thru it, whatever the cause so chin up, you're doing fab and this too shall pass 
Edited by ScottishPixie
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ScottishPixie
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Posted: 12 April 2010 at 7:50pm |
Also the lactation consultant was providing me with info from the kellymom site - it's a good find
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1st_Time_Preggies
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Posted: 12 April 2010 at 8:28pm |
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Oh my goodness, I was just going to post tonight about the same topic! I am having major issues with my son, who is only 10 weeks old. He has started screaming before feeds and I don't know why :-( I am going to see a lactation consultant tomorrow so hopefully they can give me some ideas too.
I would have thought if it was an ear infection, bubs would be miserable all the time? My DS is happy as larry until it comes time to latch on :-(
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tiptoes
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Posted: 14 April 2010 at 2:57pm |
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We had a similar thing at about 8 weeks for 2 or 3 days and plunketline suggested getting in the bath together and when he was nice and relaxed to give it another go then.
Also, the quiet place idea is good too as Cooper is on the bottle now but still prefers to be in the room with it a bit darker and white noise going than in the lounge with the tv.
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BeLoved
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Posted: 14 April 2010 at 6:10pm |
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I went through the same thing with DD at around the same age, it lasted a couple of days but I found lots of skin to skin and lying in my bed to feed her while we were both lying down worked well for us, also in semi darkness.
I hope it gets sorted for you soon, it really stressed me out at first and Dh was away so my Mum came to help me and I think once my stress levels came down things improved also.
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DJ
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Posted: 14 April 2010 at 8:45pm |
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good luck Hope2be, I hope you can sort this out. I've been having similar issues for the past 6 weeks (!)
There is other info on the kellymom site under "distractable baby" which you might find useful.
Thanks for your story ScottishPixie - I've kind of been wondering if I have latch problems as DD2 doesn't get on as well as DD1 did - I'll work on that tomorrow and hopefully see some improvement.
Other things that are sort of helping me are wrapping baby for feeding, waiting 4hrs to feed her so she's really hungry, trying to keep the 2yr old out of the room...and making sure there is no wind.
It is stressful! Hang in there!
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MamaT
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Posted: 15 April 2010 at 9:06am |
Things have got better, but still not back to normal at all.
I have found that lots of skin to skin and laying down with him does help, he still cries and pulls off and it takes forever to feed him, but at least he is getting something in him.
I am really trying to relax with it, but much easier said than done 
I have booked him in for a doctor visit tomorrow too, just to get everything double checked
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1st_Time_Preggies
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Posted: 15 April 2010 at 9:11am |
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Good idea to get him checked out, just to put your mind at ease. Hopefully there is nothing wrong with him, and he is just going through a "phase". It is so hard to keep up with their phases! Just when you think you have them sussed, they change on you!
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DJ
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Posted: 15 April 2010 at 3:01pm |
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I forgot to mention using saline drops to clear the nose before a feed can help....
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My baby won’t nurse
