Why would a 3-month old baby start rejecting the breast?

Question

Hello there

Our three month old baby has just started to reject his mother's breast, which is upsetting her enormously. He was always happy to feed from her breasts, but in the last few days he's been less inclined to feed from her left breast and this evening he's seemed uninterested in both. There's lots of milk in both breasts and she can't work out why he doesn't seem to want it.

Because our little boy fell slightly below the weight our health visitor wanted for him, we have had to use a bottle to give him tops of formula in the evenings, but we have always done that directly after a proper, full feed on the breast - so it's not like the bottle replaced the breast. We've been doing that for around 10 weeks and it didn't seem to have affected how he felt about the breast.

So, I guess we're looking for any reasons why a baby would suddenly start to reject the breast and any suggestions on what we might be able to do about it.

Any help very gratefully received. Thanks,

Answer 1

I can almost guarantee you that this problem has developed since you introduced a bottle. The bottle nipple uses a different sucking motion than the breast does, and the baby doesn't have to work as hard to drink out of it. A lot of babies get "lazy" after the bottle is introduced and simply don't want to work as hard at the breast.

Obviously, I don't know the details of your particular situation, but when I was in the hospital with my son and he almost didn't gain the weight fast enough breastfeeding, the doctor threatened to put him on formula. I basically told him to shove it and to back off. My son is now 13 months old and well into the 90th percentile thanks to breastfeeding (he was off the charts until we introduced solids).

Most babies do not need formula to keep gaining weight, and doctors like to push that on nervous parents as soon as their child falls an ounce below where the doctor thinks the baby should be. Unfortunately, introducing the bottle causes the mother's milk supply to go down (yes, even if she pumps, since pumps don't work as efficiently as a baby), which further complicates the problem when you really want the baby to get plenty of milk to ensure proper weight gain.

While I don't expect you to take advice from me, an anonymous web poster, I do highly recommend you do some more research on this issue and contact your local La Leche League (see link below). They can help your wife get back on track with nursing. They are friendly, knowledgeable, available 24 hours a day, and best of all FREE. In the immediate future, your wife should probably pump to relieve some of that pressure (and save that liquid gold in the freezer) to help prevent her from developing mastitis from a clogged milk duct (this often happens as a result of engorgement).

Keep up the fantastic work; it sounds like your baby was born to a loving home with parents who really want the best for him! Congratulations and good luck!

Also, feel free to contact me via email ANYTIME with any breastfeeding questions; I'd love to be able to help you out if I can or at least direct you towards someone else who can.

edited 2/20:
I forgot to add that many pediatricians base baby's weight on a chart that was derived from either formula-fed babies or both formula-fed and breastfed babies. Breastfed babies are so vastly different from formula-fed babies that there is an entirely different chart that should be used to gauge a breastfed baby's weight gain. It's possible your baby was not evaluated correctly. Try using this chart (taken from the World Health Organization) for breastfed babies: http://www.kellymom.com/babyconcerns/growth/chart1.html

Answer 2

Hi,
I had a baby 5 months ago and I can understand how it can be upsetting to a mom when her baby has problems eating. At the beginning I had to give my daughter formula since my milk had not come in. Now I find that if I give her formula she rejects it. Other people have mentioned that diet may be affecting this. I have found that there are times when my daughter is not crazy about eating and gets gas if I have eaten certain foods (like Chinese food).
Your son my just have acquired a likeness for the bottle and I would try pumping and feeding him the breast milk. His mom may find that this makes it a bit easier to get around and allow her to have you take over some of the feedings.
Definitely talk to your doctor as well as the health visitor.

Good luck and tell your baby's mom to keep her spirits up!

Answer 3

Here is the article you need:

http://www.kellymom.com/bf/concerns/baby/back-to-breast.html
Help -- My Baby Won't Nurse!
(You really need to read the whole thing I can't summerize it)


And this is the article you needed 10 weeks ago. Formula is almost never the answer:
How might I increase baby's weight gain?
http://www.kellymom.com/babyconcerns/growth/weight-gain_increase.html

I am not trying to say that you were "bad parent's" for listening to the health advisor, but rather that the health advisor is badly informed, which sadly I see way too often. This article may also interest you:
Handout #18. How to Know a Health Professional is not Supportive of Breastfeeding. Revised January 2005
Written by Jack Newman, MD, FRCPC. © 2005
http://www.kellymom.com/newman/18MD_unsupportive.html
11. S/he does not try to get you help if you are having trouble with breastfeeding. Most problems can be prevented or cured, and most of the time the answer to breastfeeding problems is not giving formula. Unfortunately, many health professionals, particularly physicians, and even more particularly pediatricians, do not know how to help. But there is help out there. Insist on getting it. “You don’t have to breastfeed to be a good mother”, is true, but not an answer to a breastfeeding problem

You wife should really consider going to La Leche League Meetings. She will get a lot of support and good advice from both people trained in lactation and real breastfeeding moms.
http://www.llli.org/WebUS.html
(Change the country in the upper left if you aren't American, which I suspect you aren't if you have a health visitor? UK would be my guess, though I know some of the other provinces in Canada (where I live) have health visitors).

Answer 4

My guess would be that your problem is that you introduced the bottle to begin with .
The milk is much easier for a baby to get out of a bottle than it is out of the breast so perhaps he just doesnt want to "work harder" at the breast .
I think that nurses put far too much emphasis on " average weights" that they think the baby should be rather than whether the baby is happy , healthy, weeing often (4-5wet nappies p/day) gaining some weight etc. I have found with both of my babies that they went through a "fussy' period at 3mths but if you perservere with breastfeeding you cant go wrong.
When my first born (daughter now 5 y/o) was a baby she was
6p 6oz and every time I went to the health nurse she would tell me that she was " underweight" I originally doubted myself and gave her a few bottles of formula to "top her up " I then got in touch with the Australian Breastfeeding Association ( I think its La Leche in USA) who gave me great support and told me what I was doing was unnessecary as breastmilk is the best thing that they could possibly have to give them the best start in life , I stopped the bottles and breastfed on demand ( whenever she was unsettled) and it worked .
My daughter is now 5 years old and a very happy healthy intelligent little girl she is just tall and slim and that's the way she was made!!
Follow your heart and do what you think is right ( I'd loose the bottles) your partner is obviously feeling like bf is the best which is why she's upset at him 'rejecting ' it . Contact your local Breastfeedin support group for more ideas and help. Good Luck

Answer 5

It could be a number of things:
Maybe he is teething but in this case he might reject a bottle also as any sucking can hurt the gums.
Maybe he prefers the bottle now (it is usually easier to suck from a bottle and the milk comes faster).
Maybe mother ate something that has flavoured her milk that the baby dislikes the taste of ( maybe garlic or onions?).
Keep trying with the breast though, and hopefully it will pass. Until the baby does take the breast your partner may want to pump to keep her supply going. Supplementing with formula will effect the supply for most women unless a breast pump is also used.

Answer 6

The baby is annoyed at the speed the milk comes out. If you are not making enough milk you need to breast feed more, not use a bottle. Make sure it isn't a diet issue, like you went out with your wife for Mexican food and she had a bunch of salsa. Have her drink plenty of water. Massage her breasts in the hot shower. Massage them before a feeding. Make sure the baby latches on properly. Coo and sing to the baby while feeding.
La leche league as the woman above me mentioned is a great place for info.

Answer 7

My little boy did the same. At 10 weeks I introduced bottle, we got some way niple confusion. Refused breast, flow from bottle is easier. I was not enought strong i start on pumping and putting to bottle anyway i needed to go to aork after 3 months, it is not easy. Even at night I pumped and then fed as a slave. i do it for 11 months only. My baby is big size , exclusive breastfeeding until 9 months... i would say, if she is at home, forget about bottle try to offer him only breast he will suck when he will be hungry, otherwise you will work hard as i did, lack of sleep and sterilization of equipment.

If baby will have problem to drink a while and she has a lot of milk she better pump it out a bit as she don't loose it if baby doesn't drink it, tomorrow production decreases... she better pump out and still try him to latch on. I bet he will finally. Check diapers don't let him dehydrate, must have wet diapers...

Support your wife, breastfeeding is very difficult, more difficult for me as the birth of baby, it is about self confidence and it is painful but the best thing i did for my baby and the best thing for me, after 10 months I look almost as before I got pregnant.

Good luck!

Answer 8

Maybe she doesn't have enough milk coming out of her breast to satisfy the baby's hunger. A bottle would offer that much faster. Would she be able to pump, and bottle feed? If the baby needs to be on formula only... there is no need to feel like you've let your child down. Formula is a wonderful substitute for breastmilk (and they sleep better at night)

Answer 9

If he is rejeting the breast it is for a specific reason....I would suggest taking a look at your wifes diet....i would bet it has something to do with what she is eating.

Answer 10

When my daughter didnt want to nurse, she had an ear infection. IDK maybe its something with the sucking that just makes her go in pain..