Breastfeeding
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Day 10 of nursing strike - is there any hope?

Hi, I'm new here but was wondering if any mamas have advice or success stories they could share? My 11 month old has been on a nursing strike for 10 days now. She will only nurse first thing in the morning but otherwise cries and arches away if I try to breast feed her. We had a rough start to breast feeding so she has always been bottle fed as well, but then at around 3.5 months she starting nursing better so we've been combo feeding since. I think a number of factors likely brought on the strike - intense teething (she has been really uncomfortable), plus we were on vacation the week before this started and then the week she started refusing to nurse I had a very busy week at work and was not able to breastfeed in the morning before leaving as I normally due to an early start. I spoke to my lactation consultant last week, but her advice has been hard to implement/has not worked. We live with my parents, so it's not possible for me to hang around topless with her all day, I've spent this past week holding her and playing with her as much as possible. I tried to skin to skin for a nap, but it did not really work as she started fussing (she's used to sleeping alone). For this reason, we aren't co-sleeping. I tried bathing with her last night and she was REALLY not into it. I'm really heartbroken over this whole thing - my first refused to nurse, so I had to exclusively pump for him, and my daughter and I have worked so hard to get to where were were that I hate to think that our breastfeeding journey is over! The only glimmer of hope I still have is that she has been nursing first thing in the morning (although only for a few minutes - but at least she's not crying at the sight of my breast like she is the rest of the day). Has anyone else been through this? If so, were you able to come through this successfully? Thanks in advance!

Re: Day 10 of nursing strike - is there any hope?

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    Tldr; My youngest had a nursing strike when she was 9m. I tried everything and even the LC I worked with was stumped. She told me to exclusively pump for 5-7 days and only offer a bottle to take the pressure off both of is and then try breastfeeding again when we were both less frustrated and the expectations were lower. It worked for us and I went on to nurse for another 9 months.

    I highly recommend working with a lactation consultant if you aren’t already, but at almost a year it’s likely not an issue they can fix, but your soon to be toddler exerting their will on one of the few things they can control.
    DD1: June '16 DD2: March ‘19 :::: Married since 2011 :::: USN Wife ::::
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