BFing Frustration

ellekae

Hi, ladies! My DD is 7 1/2 m, was exclusively BFed until 6 m, and is doing great with eating solids. Lately, she's been nursing great on one side and refusing to nurse on the other side (it's not a side preference as it happens no matter which side I start with). She just throws her head back and cries or sucks for a second and then just blows bubbles if I get her to latch at all.

She won't take a bottle, and I'm still working on getting her to take a sippy cup. I'm not quite ready to wean her, and all this pumping one side every few hours is making me crazy.

 Did anyone else experience something like this? Any advice, or just wait it out?

kje120

Is she just full?  You can't force her to eat if she isn't hungry.

My only advice would be to nurse for a shorter period of time on the first side and see if she'll nurse on the second side.  If she still refuses then I don't really have any advice - sorry.

jandy09

mullenem:

Maybe she's just full after one side.  I only feed one side at a time for every feed except for the last one of the day, right before bed.  She'll usually eat off both sides at that time. 

I'd wean off pumping that side and just let her feed off of one side at a time if that's all she wants.  Your supply is obv. fine if she's full after one side.

Exactly this for us. 

I wouldn't try pulling her off the first breast sooner to offer the second, this could create a foremilk and hindmilk imbalance.

nikip6454

I agree with the PP about your DD being full, I would however, recommend possibly cutting back solids a bit.  At her age BM should still be her primary source of nutrition but if she is filling up on solids she may but be hungry enough for the needed BM.  This was the problem with my DD around 6 1/2 months. 

I went from two Baby Bullet servings cut to 1-1.5 servings plus puffs or num nums.  I also moved her nursing to before her meals.  This helped with nursing longer and sleeping longer!

Her schedule is (roughly) 7:30 nurse, 10:30 nurse, 11:30 "lunch" of fruit, possibly oatmeal, puffs, some water, 1:30 nurse, 4:15 nurse, 6:15 nurse, 6:30 "dinner" of vegetable, possibly a fruit, puffs, Num Num, water. She usually eats again during the night sometime.

 

ellekae

Thanks for the replies. I usually nurse her before feeding her solids; my pediatrician told me to switch to BFing after solids when I mentioned the issue to her, but that made the problem worse. Then I had trouble getting her to nurse at all. Like you guys were saying, she was definitely filling up on solids when I tried that. She nurses great at her last feeding usually.

Her schedule is like this:

7:30 nurse, cereal & fruit (1-2 tbsp)
12:30 nurse, fruit & veggie (2-3 tbsp)
5:00 nurse, cereal & veggie (3-4 tbsp)
9:00 nurse

She sleeps through the night without any feedings and has since she was 5 weeks.

Hmm... I'll keep plugging away, and slow down pumping so my milk supply will go down a bit to balance this change out. But, I'm not going to lie, ladies. I'm super sore on the right side today!

sl_gordon

My lo started pulling off the breast around 6 months and I could not for the life of me figure out what the problem was or get her to eat. I was constantly switching her from side to side, both boobs hanging out. It was so annoying and not at all attractive. Then I discovered that her gums were sore and it hurt for her to suck. You might want to try giving her something cold to chew on before nursing her, or give her some orajel 15-20 minutes before you nurse (if you give it too close to a bf session her mouth might be too numb to suck effectively.

Birdies08

We do only one side per feeding on purpose, because when I switched sides she ended up with a foremilk imbalance, so there's nothing wrong with that. I don't pump the other side, I just offer it at the next feeding.

It sounds like you aren't giving too much solids, but definitely nurse her first.