xp: Nursing Strike?

thiswillbe

Long story short, I have supply issues and the twins get probably about 70% formula and 30% breast milk (both direct from nursing and bottles of expressed milk I've pumped) on a daily basis. I try to nurse each of them at least once a day (usually twice), and I had been nursing DD at night as well (DS had been getting F bottles at his nighttime feeds). Yesterday DD started to refuse to nurse, putting her mouth on my nipple and sucking a time or two, then pulling off and crying (more of a protest cry than anything). Today she was putting her mouth on, but not sucking, then pulling off and crying. I wasn't able to get her to latch at all today.

I don't think it's the taste of my milk-- I pumped this morning and she was fine taking the fresh milk from a bottle. I've tried calm, quiet environments, but I don't think she's just distracted (she seems very focused while she is doing this fussing; looks directly at me and not around at other things, etc.).

Any suggestions about how I can get her to nurse again? I am very upset about this turn of events because I have been working so hard to build/maintain my supply, and I know having one of the babies refuse to nurse will not help the milk production situation! (Not to mention, I miss her nursing.) I asked on the breastfeeding and multiples boards as well, but thought I'd post here in case anyone has ideas. I'm so sad about this!! TIA for the help.

2brides

I don't have any suggestions since one of my kids never really liked nursing and was mostly bottle fed and the other only nursed off and on. I pumped like a fiend. My only thought is that if she doesn't nurse, go ahead and pump to keep up production. Have you tried Fenugreek for production? It did help me.

 

Good luck - and I hope she gets her act together and nurses! 

Mrs._F

Here's a link to Dr. Sears' site that addresses nursing strikes - looks like there are a couple of suggestions there to try.  Good luck!!

2dBride

One more thing to suggest:  If one of them is not nursing, you might want to pump while nursing the other one.  Having a baby sucking on one breast triggers the let-down reflex on both, which makes it a lot easier to pump effectively enough to keep supply up.