Infants sometimes refuse nursing, causing parental worry

“Desperately need support / success stories ! I'm FTM with 3,5 months old baby boy. We EBF. He used to nurse every 3 h happily but lately he seems to want to do anything but eat. His latch has gotten shallow or he is not interested enough to latch. He pops on and off the breast. Also trying to fit his hands into mouth at the same time or practicing his rolling movements. I guess I have sometimes offered the boob too much out of worry and caused full on nursing strikes that have luckily resolv”

“My 8.5 month old has had what feels like a sudden drop in appetite this week and it’s so hard not over analyzing everything and worrying about why. We’re pretty sure it’s from teething - he has 8 teeth already, 5 of which all popped within the last 3 or so weeks and is still drooling and gnawing away at teethers like crazy so there may be more still coming, too. Over the past week though he’s gone from happily drinking 27-30 ounces a day plus 2 ‘meals’ to barely wanting 15-20 ounces a day and on”

“My baby will latch fine and eat but after so long she constantly latches and unlatches and roots acting like she doesn’t know how to. It’s so frustrating and i feel like she isn’t eating enough because she will be fussy after most of the time. I try to help her relatch and it doesn’t make a difference. If i switch sides she’ll latch for a minute and then do the same thing. What do i do ? Edit to add. Baby is 6 weeks and has been breastfeeding since birth. She started this like week and a half ag”

“So basically I am exclusively pumping, due to baby having had a severe tongue tie. We got it fixed when she was 5 days old, but she was never able to latch before or after. She definitely prefers a bottle. I was planning on breastfeeding, which was important to me, but she is almost 6 weeks old now and still refusing the breast, so I am giving up trying. BUT as we all know, exclusively pumping is SO HARD, and takes away so much of your time during the day (and more importantly - night!) and also”

“My LO is 3 months, and refuses any and all pacifiers and bottles. I’ve tried every brand I can find. Even the pacifiers marked as “perfect for breastfeeding.” Now she’s discovered her hands, and constantly sucking on her thumb. It’s to the point that while she’s nursing she’ll try and shove her thumb in her mouth which unlatches her and she gets pissed. Has anyone dealt with this? I’m not sure what to do and it’s driving me nuts. No matter what I do if I give her something that isn’t my boob she”

“I’m tired of my miss little fussy who is upset about the flow of my breast and also bottles sometimes? We are 3 months old and only recently became this demanding, moms give me hope - does it ever get better? She latches for fast flow but as soon as it calms she is either upset by the breast or happy unlatched and uninterested. Same thing happens with bottles, she latches for a bit but when I do ‘slow paced feeding’ breaks she unlatches and gets upset all the tim submitted by /u/Mise”

“Currently experiencing bottle aversion/feeding aversion with my 7.5-week-old, who is now 8 weeks old and exclusively bottle-fed. I feel so guilty that my baby has developed this because of me pressuring her to feed to make sure she gets her daily intake and more. I’m trying Rowena Bennett’s method, but my anxiety is really high because my baby is only 8 weeks old. If she doesn’t take the minimum amount, should I wake her up every 3–4 hours to feed her, or should I let her wake up on her own? Als”

“Hello, I am a FTM with a 4 week old baby who has had a shallow chompy latch since birth. They struggle to open their mouth wide and I’ve been working on latching technique to support them to get a deep latch. They are still very chompy and sometimes will adjust into a shallow latch on the odd occasion we get a deep latch. We practice breastfeeding once a day while I try to heal my nipples and the rest of the time I pump and we bottle feed with paced feeding. We have seen 3 LCs so far at the same”

“I am at my wits end over this because I have no idea what to do. My baby is 4 months old and for probably a month now I’ve noticed his nursing times on each breast have been getting lower and lower and he’s getting fussier and fussier. Like I was lucky if he’s on for 4 minutes each side. I know as they get older they get more efficient but he just seems to hate boob lately. On 9/24 I went to a lactation consultant and we did a weighted feed and he got 4 ounces which was great but he still was fu”

“My son is nearly 6 months old and I got my period back two days ago, I have noticed the past few days that he’s been a lot fussier while feeding at times, could this be due to my period and the supply drop from it. Tonight he has been inconsolable at one point and I don’t know if it’s because the milk isn’t coming out enough, milk still comes out when I express with my hands to see if any actually comes out but it seems slower than usual. Has this happened to others? If so what do you do around”

“Baby is 8 months and has been EBF. She recently dropped percentiles. Nothing crazy - 25 points. However, I don’t think it’s just settling. She is quite hungry and when she does get a bottle she fights to chug it down when I try and pace it. She also works and works at the boob when I’m empty. She has been crawling for about 6 weeks and trying to cruise. She’s quite active. She enjoys her solids and gets 2-3 meals a day although 90% definitely ends up on the floor. She’s been sleeping through the”

“LO is 7 months old and exclusively breastfed. For the last few weeks it has been a struggle to get her to nurse. Everything else is more interesting, the ceiling light, the room were in, the noises etc. It’s getting difficult to get her to nurse sufficiently and I can’t even go anywhere because she won’t drink at all in a new environment. The worrisome fact is that her wet diapers are not as wet as before so I worry she’s not getting enough hydration. She still has 6+ wet diapers but not as wet”

“I am bad at reading my LOs signals but sometimes I put her to breast and she is fussy and I wonder if she is just not hungry? She would fuss and refuse to take the breast but after would lie happy and continue babbling around. submitted by /u/Miserable-Fix6952 [link] [comments]”

“My 4 month old is refusing a bottle today. She had one around 3:30 am (4 ounces) and hasn’t had more than maybe an ounce? If any since then and it’s almost 1:00 pm. No fever and is happy as a clam but everytime I try to feed her she cries. Should I be concerned? We have had issues with distractions around this age but never full on refusal. submitted by /u/Melodic-Method-6458 [link] [comments]”

“About to have my third kid and I really cannot mentally handle nursing or pumping from my experience with my first two. I still want to give my baby my colostrum but I don’t want to get sucked into the whole pumping or trying to nurse thing again because it just sends my mental health in a downward spiral and I can’t do that to myself or my kids. Has anyone just given colostrum then stopped? Did your milk still come in and you had to dry up? Or did you just stop before milk came in? Thanks for a”

“Baby had to take breastmilk from bottle from day one because of severe jaundice and she was unable to latch. 3 months now and I fear light is not at the end of the tunnel to get her to latch. Believe me I tried everything. She has Grade 3 lip tie. Didn’t do release because it wasn’t necessary because it’s because her tongue has a mobility issue and she keeps pushing up instead of down to suck. Here’s what I’ve done so far. In home lactation consultant. Cranial sacral therapy with chiropractor (s”

“Hello, my baby used to eat a lot before ebf and gained weight nicely, now i have to beg to eat and eats small amount, doesnt empty my brests maybe 20%, and dont gain weigh like used to, i tried everything i read here: silence, put down curtains to darken room, make bf boring and it doesnt help. I offer boob often and wont eat starts fussing. So baby sleeps at night 12 hours and doesnt eat during night maybe once and then wakes up and wont eat and wont sleep for 7 hours or sometimes more. I went”

“My baby started since 5 weeks to have troubles nursing. It progressively went worse until we had 2 colds and it was a nightmare eating while congested. Now at almost 5 months he's eating minimum amounts to be hidrated and not lose weight. He's blood tests are normal apart from a bit low ferritin for which we struggle making him take drops. He does accept bottles, barely takes 2ml of any liquid no matter how much I've tried. At this point I'm lost. I have depression and rage. I&#3”

“I breastfeed most of the day, par one pumped bottle here and there to give myself a break and let my partner feed baby. In the past couple days, though, bbg has been getting really frustrated at the breast. I think my supply regulated early and she might be pissed that my, previously super fast, let down is taking more work now. On top of that- I pumped for the last 24 hours because my girl got her 2 month shots and I didn’t want to press on her legs while nursing her. This evening, she would NO”

“My daughter wants to be permanently latched to me. She’s only 3 weeks so I know this is not abnormal, but I EBF my first born and I don’t remember him being this attached. I don’t mind but the issue is that she will feed until she’s full, but if she doesn’t fall asleep nursing, or if she wakes up from her sleep, she wants to latch to put herself to sleep but ends up eating too much, getting gassy and upset, then vomiting everything up. I feed her in the recommended position to avoid spit up (kin”

“Baby is 10 weeks old now, for about the last month we’ve been dealing with evening fussiness/breast refusal. She nurses fine all morning, and overnight, but between the hours of 4 pm-8 pm she does not want my breast, she only wants a bottle. I think it’s an overtired/overstimulated issue. We introduced a pumped evening bottle so that my husband could do one overnight feed around the time she started this routine. Recently, we tried a nipple shield instead of a pumped bottle when she did her fuss”

“My 9 month old daughter has kind of stopped gaining weight for the last two months and is constantly just hovering around 16 pounds. She is often distracted when nursing and would stop feeding after a minutes because she always wants to sit up and look around and touch things. When she becomes distracted, she loses interest in feeding. We've introduced solids at 6 months, but even now, she might just take a bite of something and then would lose all interest in another bite. She often pushes”

“My 9 month old daughter has kind of stopped gaining weight for the last two months and is constantly just hovering around 16 pounds. She is often distracted when nursing and would stop feeding after a minutes because she always wants to sit up and look around and touch things. When she becomes distracted, she loses interest in feeding. We've introduced solids at 6 months, but even now, she might just take a bite of something and then would lose all interest in another bite. She often pushes”

“My baby is 3.5 mo old. About 2 weeks ago she started to refuse to latch. It wasn't every feed but it seemed there was at least one feed a day that she would just scream and scream and I knew she was hungry but she wouldn't eat. When she would get so worked up that she was inconsolable, I would give her a bottle. I know there is milk available because I pump 4oz bottles in this scenario. She just doesn't even try to latch and nurse. Today she was all smiles and coos but as soon as I p”

“My baby just hit 6 months and suddenly starting last night he is fighting to stay latched and getting upset. He will latch and then suck for a few moments and then just start fighting, latch and cry like he doesn’t know what to do and repeat for 4/5 minutes. Eventually he completely latches and I hear and see him sucking and he’s content but I don’t know why he’s suddenly struggling at first when he’s been completely fine at nursing since 8 weeks old. I know my supply is fine because when he sto”

“I’m a first time mom and my baby is a little over 2 weeks old. I’ve struggled with breastfeeding since he was born. The day we brought him home from the hospital, we ended up back in the emergency room because my milk hadn’t come in and baby hadn’t peed in >18 hours. We were told to start supplementing with formula. Since that time, I’ve been trying to breastfeed first and then offer supplemental bottles as needed. Off and on, he’s seemed really frustrated at the breast — feeding for a few mi”

“My LO is 4 months. Has never been great at breastfeeding, but we worked with an LC and thought we got him to a place where he was at least getting enough and growing well. He started refusing the breast recently which made me concerned, but he also started daycare so lots of changes. He’s also been dropping percentiles in weight (steady at 97th in height but went from 90th to 30th in weight from birth to 4mo) and pediatrician hasn’t been concerned because he’s always happy, but after his 4mo app”

“I’m a very worried and mentally exhausted mother seeking help for my 8-month-old baby, who has been struggling with severe feeding aversion since 6 weeks of age. Initially, my overactive letdown caused her to choke while breastfeeding. Gradually, she developed an aversion and stopped breastfeeding, and she doesn't accept bottles too. She only comes back to breast when she is extremely hungry and took only 3 sucks and arches back , crys and scream. I have never forced her to feed, but despite”

“She is 3 month old and got more and more communicative. She is a chill baby after all. Colicky times have passed, she now can latch well after 2 months of triple feeding which killed me, she does not cry a lot, she communicates well what she wants with different sounds. She sleeps, she eats from the breast, she loves playing and being entertained. BUT more and more often, she would HATE eating while I am sitting down. She screams like crazy if I do sit down while I breastfeed, and apart from the”

“LO is 10 weeks old, EBF, and only does shallow latches. I've had a few deep latches here and there, but baby almost always pulls back into a shallow one bc of over active letdown. I swear I got a deep latch, only to see the bottom jaw right not in the right place. ​ ​I've been to an IBCLC a few times and she suggested some mouth exercises; there's no worries about transfer, baby is gaining more than enough weight and has plenty of wet diapers. I do laid back position mostly and have”

“When feeding, my baby has recently started kneading and scratching at my boobs, preserving her head in before unlatching and scratching her face. Is this her trying to get a let down, is she tired, or what could it possibly mean?? submitted by /u/Madeforlovingyou [link] [comments]”

“So baby is 6 weeks. She will nurse fine but then after a while she will constantly latch/unlatch moving her head side to side. What does it mean ? submitted by /u/Old-Kitchen-5377 [link] [comments]”

“My now 8 week old daughter breastfed beautifully for the first 4 weeks. Around week 5 we started having intermittent issues where she would unlatch (and pull my nipple as far as it would go, ouch), cry, arch her back, angrily relatch, unlatch a moment later, cry more, and so on. She’s clearly still hungry in these moments but won’t stay on the breast. If I pop her upright she’s totally fine, and only sometimes burps. But she’s still hungry. Around week 6 she had an episode of projectile vomiting”

“My LO is 12 weeks old I’ve posted before about getting advice about a breast aversion, but I’m wondering if anyone has ever had success getting over it? He only nurses when sleepy so I’m just living around his naps in order to get him to nurse. I feel like I can’t ever leave the house in case I miss a feeding opportunity because he won’t take a bottle. I’m anxious 24/7 about him eating. He used to eat every 1.5-2 hours and now sometimes he’ll go 4 hours without eating. Luckily my supply is great”

“He is 80days old now. Latches for a min every time and then cry and scream. Not sure why🥲. Went to lactation consultant and that dayyyy he latched and nursed perfectly like a good boy and as soon as we were back, same old story🥲. I even got a feeding pillow just like the one LC had. No use. What can i do? I very badly want to nurse my baby🥲 as of now he gets 80% from pumped milk and 20% formula. submitted by /u/No-Mirror946 [link] [comments]”

“I’m so scared that this is the beginning of our end and I don’t know what else to do. My 3rd baby is making breastfeeding so stressful and not at all enjoyable because he’s a lazy eater. I fought so hard to give this baby as much time in my belly as possible because doctors wanted him out between 37-38 weeks. He was growth restricted and along with some other risk factors on my side, meant they didn’t want to let him go as far as a spontaneous labor. I was able to get him to 39 weeks before we i”

“Hello everyone,I have been exclusively breastfeeding my 5 month old but lately she has been refusing, usually she only takes it while sleeping or before a nap when she’s very drowsy.I know she must be hungry because she can’t go over 3 hours without a feed but refuses when i offer it.she’s too small for solids and i am struggling.Any tips would be greatly appreciated submitted by /u/Correct-Row-8086 [link] [comments]”

“I feel so sad. My 9 week old has decided to not want to drink from my breast anymore and prefers the bottle. It’s so disheartening. I know I’m going back to work in three weeks and she will be in the bottle but it makes me feel so sad inside :( submitted by /u/Citrusamusement [link] [comments]”

“My baby is two months old and we have had to go almost exclusively to pumping which I really do not want to do. Lactation consultant says his chin is slightly recessed (no tongue or lip tie) so he struggles to latch. So she gave us a nipple shield and he does alright on it but even with that any time we breast feed he gets super worked up and shakes his head and kicks and pushes away. We do paced feeding with the bottle so he doesn’t get a flow preference but I am at a loss. I really don’t want”

“LO is 3 months old and EBF. She’s never been an efficient eater, and our feeds still take about 30-40 minutes each time, although I think she can stay on the boob for hours comfort nursing if I let her! She rarely unlatches on her own, so I always have to unlatch her. I feel like I’m a lot more cognizant of when she’s comfort nursing now, so I started unlatching her when that starts happening - usually after 20 minutes of feeding. However, she would start screaming and I have to put her back on”

“Hi all, I have a 3 month old and for the last ~2 weeks I’ve been worrying that she “won’t feed” or is fussy during feeds. It’s just dawned on me in the last couple of days that maybe it’s as simple as I’m trying to make her feed on a more newborn schedule ie offering every 2-3 hours and maybe she doesn’t want or need to eat that regularly any more. Her fussiness might just be because she doesn’t want to eat? So I experimented yesterday and waited for her to cue rather than offering based on the”

“My baby suddenly significantly dropped his solids and nursing intake recently. I'm talking like barely eats 25% of solids offered and pops off after 1 minute of nursing. I thought maybe teething but he's happy all day unless he's in the highchair. We trialed ibuprofen and cold teethers and it didn't increase his nursing or solids. We thought maybe illness but no fever and he's crawling around having a jolly good time . I thought maybe my milk was off or he didn't want bre”

“This is my first post so please be kind. I currently have a 9 month old who is EBF and refuses to take a bottle. We have tried everything and had some brief success before he changed his mind. He doesn't sleep through the night, sometimes waking only once or twice and other nights 4+ times. I also have a 3yo who EBF (who did at least take a bottle), but that is to say I am pretty much not leaving the house anytime after 8pm. I am totally fine with this and know it's just a phase, the pro”

“FTM to a 8 week old, currently exclusively breastfeeding and I have no idea when my LO is actually hungry or just fussy. Anytime she cries I just whip out the boob and she’ll take it. I don’t think she’s ever declined it. Sometimes she’ll spit up a lot (which I believe is because she over ate) but most of the time her spit ups are normal. I also don’t really know how many oz she eats, sometimes she’ll feed on both boobs for 20 min, other times she’ll only eat one boob for like 10 minutes and the”

“I’m really struggling with breastfeeding my baby. She’s 3 months now and did so well breastfeeding up until the past few weeks. She’s was born early and was only 4lbs 8oz and is up to 11lbs now. She hated the bottle but we started introducing the bottle more at 8 weeks and sometimes she hated it and sometimes it went well. Now she seems to be doing better with the bottle then breastfeeding. When I nurse her, she’ll pull on and off crying and is so fussy but if I do that with the bottle it’s half”

“We introduced bottles around week 4/5 to help give me a bit of a break, allow dad to feed LO, etc. Baby is now 8 weeks old, 2 months and has started refusing the breast more and more and today has only wanted the bottle. She is having either expressed milk or formula if she refuses while we’re out and about. I followed the feeding team’s advice, hold the bottle flat, lots of breaks, making the baby work for the milk out of the bottle so it’s not an instant reward and easier than the breast. I do”

“My baby is 3.5 months old. He has always been a great feeder. He is EBF and only recently has he had a problem latching? I’ll put him on his side to eat and he will cry and fuss, I’ll have to rock him and bounce him and feed him while I’m standing up and he is vertical as well. That’s the only way he will latch on, or if I’m lying. He’s not tired, he sleeps and naps well, he’s just obviously hungry because he will keep doing hunger cues. Is this a growth spurt? Has anyone else experienced this?”

“I’m not sure if it’s due to teething but we thought it was her injections but has gone on for couple days now. She will drink but less than she normally does and she gets so frustrated on the bottle. She will suck a few times then cry. She’s been extra fussy and she is chewing everything hard too I’m trying not to force the bottle but every feed is anxiety ridden for me I’m afraid if she gets dehydrated I’ve tried calpol I’ve tried teething granulas and doesn’t seem to help What else can I do Ba”

“I recently posted on here that i’m FTM with a 4 month old and I have been having feeding issues for breast and bottle with my baby completely refusing to take either. I have realized that I’m pretty sure she is teething but, also I have found if she is laying directly on my chest she will take a bottle and or boob and fall asleep feeding like this. She is refusing food in any other position except on me directly and I have tried everything. I even went back to the football hold to see if it woul”

“Looking for some advice - my baby is four weeks old and we are exclusively breastfeeding. I had some trouble with feeding initially but things seemed to get better around week two. Now, during the night baby is feeding well, she will generally get some good feeds of between 15 to 25 minutes after which she satisfied and will go down to sleep for a couple of hours at least. During the day, it’s a very different story. We seem to be in a cycle of short naps and grazing instead of proper feeding. S”

“Hey all, I'm feeling super frustrated. My little one is 11 weeks and is both breast fed and bottle fed (pumped milk). Lately, she struggles with the breast (probably since 5 weeks). She is very unfussy in general, but gas seems to be a struggle (kicking legs, tense stomach, and sometimes spit up too). When she gets like this, she doesn't like to be in a recline position (our go to nurse positions are typical cradled arms or lying on side in bed, she won't nurse held up either), and o”

“Hello everyone! FTM to a 4 month old baby. Trying to see if this has happened to anyone else or if this is just my baby! My baby has been solely BF since month 3. Before that she was on bottles and boob. I will out for a day in 2 weeks and so we have been trying to get her to practice on bottles again since she’s been refusing them, so that way dad can watch her and feed her while I’m out. Yesterday she had boob at 4pm and then went to sleep. She slept till 6pm, I let her play, and then me and d”

“My baby has colic since birth, she’s very gassy. I am so sad that I can’t breastfeed her. 😢 She’s uncomfortable whatever position I’ll do to her. I remember the day after we discharge from the hospital, I had enough milk supply. I try to pump as much as I can, but LO always cries and screams bloody murder. Wanted to be held all the time. Always grunts and squirms whenever we do contact naps. And she sleeps in our chest during the night. So basically it ruined my pumping routine/schedule. I don’”

“My baby has been ill with a cold (but is better now, only slightly stuffy), and he has premolars coming in (doctor said they're swollen), but I cannot figure out his behaviour! He's never been a high volume eater, but he was game for trying pretty much everything. If he didn't have any of one of the foods it was more because he was tired/upset/not in the mood. He went through a great eating phase a couple weeks ago - now, post this illness he is rejecting foods and I can't figure”

“I’m so tired and so sad. Wondering if anyone has an advice or a spell I can cast :/ Background: Didn’t start trying to nurse Baby until she was around 4 weeks old. She was never good at it, but she would latch on and do almost a full nursing session most of the time. I basically always had to top her off with a bottle. Around 6 weeks, she started getting incredibly fussy, both on the breast and off. We realized she was having pretty severe silent reflux so I moved her purely to the Dr. Browns an”

“this started like a month ago . some days he will take a bottle later in the afternoon while awake. he is a healthy weight. but its just so odd, he will not nurse on the go, he will not take bottles unless desperate. Even when taking bottles, he only ever takes 1.5 oz rarely 2 oz. he is a fussy eater. so i have to rock him, get him drowsy then lay with him and he’ll eat then take his nap. He is actually a good sleepers at night , but sometimes its hard for him to get all his calories in during t”

“Hi everyone! My baby is 3 weeks old and I always planned to EBF - which is very normal in Germany where we live. When my LO was born he developed newborn jaundice and lost too much weight because he was so sleepy. I started pumping in the hospital and we also topped up with formula they gave us to be able to bottlefeed him while he got his uv-therapy. When we got home I kept pumping while also breastfeeding but his weight gain was very slow, although I fed him up to 7 hours per day. I also notic”

“I have a soon to be one year old who has had some food aversions. As a baby she had a bottle aversion and would only eat when sleeping. Now the uptick on solids has been slow. She will put things in her mouth but will not eat. The most she'll ingest that isn't pumped breast milk is juice from fruits she's gnawed on. We had our one year check up and her blood test showed she isn't anemic but her stores are low. She's in the eighth percentile for height and weight so we don&#39”

“Hi! Just curious if anyone else is still using a preemie nipple with their “older” babies (I.e. 4+ months). Daycare is asking us to move up to a faster nipple because it’s taking a while for my little one to finish her bottles. I’ve already increased bottle size a bit and it’s slightly more than I’m pumping, and I’m worried this will just make things harder. I don’t have a very fast letdown, and our nursing sessions still take around 15-20 minutes, so I’m worried that a faster bottle will create”