Why won't my 6 month old DD nurse?????

[jerickson100]

My DD is 6 months old. I have been breastfeeding her since she was born and started pumping when I went back to work 4 months after she was born. Just in the last few days, she has started to refuse to nurse at least half the time. She will nurse once in a while, but much of the time, she will just scream and fight whenever I try to get her to nurse. She will cry and cry until I finally break down and give her a bottle. It is really breaking my heart! I absolutely am not ready to give up nursing, but it is hard to imagine continuing given how miserable she seems. I have decided to give it at least another week or so, but this is tough!

What really worries me is that I am already having supply issues. In the last two weeks, I have gone from pumping around 14 ounces to around 8-10 (pumping four times a day -- in addition to nursing in the morning and at night), so that may be part of her problem -- she is not getting as much milk as she would from a bottle and probably it is not coming out as quickly either. She will often suck for a minute or two and then get really frustrated when she doesn't get milk right away. I fear that her nursing strike, or whatever it is, will make my supply issues even worse and make it hard to recover from if and when she decides to starting nursing again. I am trying to drink more water, eat oatmeal, etc. but I welcome any other thoughts!

Please help! I am desperate!

Jessica

[HGMorgann]

Have you tried to do a "dream feed" while she is sleeping? My 6 mo. old will refuse to nurse on really hot days, so we have to do "dream feeds" in order for her to get nutrients (she refuses bottles).

Good luck.

I know Kellymom.com has advice on nursing strikes though.

[gizzyntaz]

Could she be teething? DS LOVES the breast, but during his first round of teething he screamed and pulled off a lot. I wish I had more advice to offer...

[dana b]

She will often suck for a minute or two and then get really frustrated when she doesn't get milk right away

my dd went through the exact same thing. she was around 5 mos old, it was so frustrating for both of us. i knew she was hungry and unlike you, i had no stash of pumped milk, i had to run and pump and give her a quick bottle of whatever i had, sometimes only an ounce or two. after a while it was obvious that i had less milk and my letdown was taking a lot longer than usual, i did the oatmeal/fenugreek thing and everything was back to normal within a week and we haven't had any problems since. after this happened i found out that it's very common to have a dip in supply around 4-6 mos. i wish i knew this beforehand, i wouldn't have been so stressed about it.

[mia's mama]

Although my DD didn't pull off and scream, I too had a dip in my supply around the 5.5-6 month mark, but it went right back to normal within 2 weeks. No problems since...

[Renrel]

I don't know what is causing your issue but I thought I would tell you my experince in case it gives you hope or the will to push through. Around 10 months or so my DS became enamoured of the bottle even though he had mostly bf with only a relief bottle every couple of days and had gone through a bottle rejection around maybe 6 mths or so, I forget the age. I think the freedom of the bottle excited him. He could take it with him as he explored and that was more fun than sitting on mommies lap. It got to the point that he only nursed 5 minutes first thing in the morning before he realized he was awake. I really wanted to make it to a year though I so pushed that 5 minutes assuming that I would just let it go after his birthday. Silly really, but I had it in my mind that we would make it to a year. Well the weekend of his birthday he got a stomach bug. Nothing really bad, but he felt a bit icky and suddenly the boob was the bomb again. He has been a bm adict since then. At 22.5 months he eats three meals of real food everyday and does a few snacks but he still bf when he wakes, at lunch and before sleep and often a couple more time during the day. So differnent situation between a 6mth old and a 10 mth old, but sometimes if you hold strong something will turn the tide when you least expect it. Good luck.

[Marisa]

I wish I had more time to post but -

Help! My baby won't nurse! (http://www.kellymom.com/bf/concerns/baby/back-to-breast.html)
My baby fusses or cries while nursing (http://www.kellymom.com/bf/concerns/baby/fussy-while-nursing.html)

from Kellymom.com -- pay attention to the "Nursing Strikes" link at the bottom of the page.

[jerickson100]

Thanks, everyone. I really have no idea what is going on. Right now, my husband is trying to give her a bottle and she is screaming with him as well, so it may just be a teething issue or something else. She is also super-clingy (to me, not my husband, which has him feeling a bit sad). Unfortunately we start daycare on Tuesday (my husband has been home with her for the last 2 months). I really wish we did not have to transition to daycare with her out of sorts like this! Maybe I will see if I can work a short day on Tuesday...