All of sudden my son won't nurse?

Question

He is 5 weeks old. I was exclusively pumping for the first week, then I got him back on breasts with no problem, he was nursed during the day and bottle fed from my husband {pumped breast milk} at night. It worked well untill yesterday, when he got really upset after two or three minutes of nursing. Started screaming every time he latched on. He is been doing it every time I tried to nurse him. There was enough milk as I pumped after that. I don't want to starve him, so I always gave him the bottle, but I would rather nurse him than be pumping all the time. What should I do???

We are using two kind of bottles, Playtex ventiair and playtex nurser. I did contact LLL, but they were very unhelpful, I must say.

Answer 1

I'd get rid of the bottle, at least for a little bit. Babies are lazy by nature and it's easier to get milk from the bottle. Another suggestion, feed him a little bit from the bottle, like an ounce or so, and then onto the breast. That way he's not soooo hungry that he's going to get frustrated right away at the boob.

Answer 2

It sounds like nipple confusion to me. A baby has to suck pretty hard to get milk from the breast, (which makes it an excellent exercise, by the way) while a bottle practically squirts the milk down his throat with no effort at all.

Since you understand the benefits of breast milk, my suggestion is to re-train your baby to nurse from the breast. Stop using any bottles for a few days. Just before you sit down to nurse him, massage your breasts to help speed up the let-down reflex. This will help reduce his frustration at sucking and getting very little milk at first. It will be challenging, especially the first few times, but you MUST NOT give in and give him a bottle. He needs to understand that the milk WILL flow, with a little effort on his part.
You may have more success by offering the breast more frequently during these re-training days, so he is not excessively fussy when you begin to feed him.

You might want to consult your local La Leche League or a lactation consultant for some hands-on help with this.

Good luck!

Answer 3

Hang in there, it's frustrating - for both of you.

First of all, do you have access to La Leche league or a lactation consultation through either your doctor or his pediatrician? They can help a lot.

What it may be is that he does have to work a lot harder to get milk from you than from the bottle. There are a couple of types of bottle out there that are supposed to help with this, like Dr. Brown's and Aventi, but I don't know which ones are most recommended. So you could try letting him eat some from the bottle, then break his latch and get him to latch on to you. If he's not starving hungry he might

Answer 4

He may be going through nipple confusion...if it were me, I'd steer clear of those bottles until he gets back on the breast.

Feed him a little from the bottle so that he isn't starving and then about half way through (or less) try to switch him to the breast...

I went through this with my son and sometimes the suggestion above would work...but was always worked was nursing him when he was half asleep...

Also, getting milk from a bottle is less work...so if he's super hungry he's not going to want to work for it from the breast when he knows he can get it easy from the bottle.

Answer 5

I was told a few times that once babies try the bottle, they do prefer it because it's easier. That may be the case here.

Although you prefer nursing, my opinion would be to pump, because a hungry baby is an unhappy baby and he's still getting what he needs. You can keep trying, but if he won't go back it's not worth starving him. Just chalk it up to experience.

Answer 6

Definatly nipple preference. Throw out the bottles and nurse him. If you need more sleep, nurse with him laying down in bed with you. Thats the beauty of nursing!

Answer 7

Sounds like he prefers the bottle.

You might want to speak to you doctor or a public health nurse on how to get him back on the breast

Answer 8

my friend uses a helper, it kinda is like a bottle nipple that you put over your nipple so they will latch on, this may help