[Olivia~Maddies m...]

Hi everyone

I'm hoping someone can help me. Olivia is just over 9 1/2 months old, weighs a bit over 8kg, is 71.5 cm long. Up until yesterday 1pm she was feeding 3 times during the day (6am, 1pm, 6pm then usually at around 10pm and 3.30am)

The last 4 or 5 days she's slept through from 6pm-6am, then back to the usual pattern. The only difference with yesterday was that we started swimming classes (water babies).

We had some light lunch at 1pm, then a breastfeed then she slept frm 1.30 - 3pm. then shopping and play till 5.15, then for dinner it was baked beans + veges + some slices of fruit. Bath etc at 6pm then when i offered her a breastfeed she cried and kept pushing me away. She then slept from 6.15pm-5.45am.

I offered her a breastfeed again but she cried and pushed me away but she happily played with her teddy for a while and is crawling all over my bed and trying to grab the laptop. I have offered her the breast 4 times already but she keeeps crying as i do and she continues pulling her face away.

Needless to say my breasts are exploding. Please help, i've never expressed and am feeling overwhelmingly sad.

susan

[arty]

Just an idea...maybe the extra activity is making her hungry for solids. More snacks perhaps.

[Olivia~Maddies m...]

just an update:
I offered Olivia a breastfeed at 6am when she woke, which she rejected.
Went out for coffee and she happily ate her 2 weetbix + fruit puree
She fell asleep from 10-11.15, and when she woke i offered hera breastfeed, which she again rejected.
(BTW At 10am, when olivia was asleep, i expressed 150mL)
at 11.15 we went out then when we got home she had her lunch and when it was time for bed she accepted a breastfeed YAY!!!
However, tonight at 6pm, she again rejected the breast. I offered her the EBM from this morning in a bottle but she just kept chewing the teat and not drinkign any (she hasn't used a bottle since she was 2 weeks old).

I'm very upset again since i thought it all got sorted out this afternoon. I thought that 'low' feeling had gone for good!

[just**ace]

G'day,

I know there is some info about babies rejecting the breast at around your DDs age - apparently it is common and many people believe their bubs is self-weaning - but they're not!

I will try and find the info for you.

Meanwhile, keep expressing!



Ok, I found a link to Kellymom:

http://www.kellymom.com/bf/weaning/babyselfwean.html

Hope this helps

[Wilco]

I have been having trouble with breastfeeding my nine month old DS for over a week now. He was on 4 breastfeeds a day and just started rejecting them one day. He'd pull his head away and cry when I tried to give him a feed. I have been able to get him to have the occasional one, he will usually have one first thing in the morning as he is hungry but after that is just pure luck. Most of the time he just has a few mouthfuls and wants to take off. I saw my MCHN and she weighed him (he was a bit over 8 kg, always has been on the bottom end of the weight scale) and she said if he wasn't dehydrated then not to worry too much. She said the more milk I could add to his meals the better. I wondered whether I was giving him too much solids so I backed off on them a little bit but it doesn't seem to have made any difference. So I've decided to try and add milk to his food where I can and keep offering the breast at least 3 times a day. Who knows why he doesn't want it, he won't take a bottle and won't drink any more than about 10 mls of milk out of a cup so I'm not sure what else I can do. Can't offer any advice but just letting you know you're not alone with this problem.

[Olivia~Maddies m...]

thanks everyone for your replies. Olivia cried as usual for her 9.30pm feed, but she wouldn't take the breast. She just kept pulling away and crying. I couldn't seem to make her feel better. I walked around her room ,patting her back, did the shhhh/pat method, ... nothing was consoling her.

I tried giving her some water in a bottle (50mL tops) and she surprisingly got the hang of it pretty quick. Now i just wish i'd put breast milk in there.

I've read elsewhere to avoid giving a bottle since it might make getting back on the breast more difficult.

I've made an appointment to see the ECC tomorrow for a proper talk. Its so hard listening to Olivia grizzling and crying on and off for 1 1/2 hours now. I just don't know what to do.

[Olivia~Maddies m...]

Hi everyone, I'm just providing an update in case their are other mums going through the same thing:
In summary:
Monday
lunch breastfeed:normal
dinner breastfeed: rejected

Tuesday
breakfast breastfeed: rejected
lunch breastfeed:normal
dinner breastfeed: rejected
9.30 wake up breastfeed: rejected

Wednesday
5.30am breastfeed: rejected
6.45am usual breastfeed: rejected, but accepted 10 minutes after i was expressing
lunch breastfeed: normal
dinner breastfeed: normal

My appt with the ECC was moved from today to tomorrow morning. My bet is that it was due to ovulation. The only other thing that was different about Monday (apart from swimming) was a discharge - egg white consistency, but i'm not sure if thats the culprit.

If there's anything else i find out, i'll let you know.
Thanks again for your advice and support
Happy mummy Susan