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Infant feeding

Help! 8 week old suddenly refusing right boob

4 replies

crazypaving · 01/12/2012 20:00

This is following on from a previous thread I started about my baby refusing to feed. It turns out he's just refusing the right side! If I offer the right he either won't feed, or will suck until the letdown happens and then pull off screaming, usually after having choked. If I offer the left he will feed no probs.

Why?! And how do I stop my right side drying up (I would struggle to express as I have a 2yr old too!)? It's only been since about Weds.

I tried feeding on right in football hold - no luck. Tried again in as close to the left hold as possible (bloody uncomfy for me) and it was marginally successful.

Background info: he has a posterior tongue tie and clicks whilst feeding; I have forceful letdown; he's dropped from 75th to 50th centile sometime in the last 6 weeks Blush don't get him weighed much... He's fine in himself, alert, nappies normal, sleeping fine (for a newborn!).

Any tips would be much appreciated by my poor neglected right boob.

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emski1972 · 01/12/2012 20:39

I have the same problem and have had it for some time as DS is now 5 months. Don't give up I'd say especially as I almost did. I have a very forceful letdown and it really bothers him on the right side. Yes I have one boob bigger than the other...as I feed more on the left. Sometimes the football hold works for me other times not. I find it also depends on time of day if he is sleepy it doesn't bother him so much. I also cover the boob with a muslin until the spraying stops...I also found if I gave him a dummy it would settle him and then we could carry on. Plus once the boob had less demands made on it the force of the let down was less and solved the problem for a while. There is some good info on Kellymom that helped too.

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crazypaving · 02/12/2012 10:58

thanks emski. i'll keep trying...he feeds ok on it at night but needs a quiet calm environment to even attempt it in the day, plus loads of encouragement. not the easiest with a 2y old brother rampaging about...

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Beans1977 · 04/12/2012 09:51

I had the exact same thing with my #DD1 at 7 weeks (she is 10 weeks now) and I got really upset about it. Everytime she got near the boob she screamed and if she went on she'd pull off and milk would end up spurting her in the face.

On advice from a BF counsellor I started DD on the right breast every feed - even if she could do a few mins it was good for my supply. I tried the football hold - it didn't seem to work at first but after a few days doing it every feed it got better and became really comfortable. I think it tricked her into thinking she was on the left boob too! I also tried positioning my DD up a bit so she was coming down on the boob if that makes sense, so gravity was in her favour against my more forceful let down.

For a few weeks it was really stressful but with my DD seems it was just a phase and now she is back to normal and I am in cradle hold again with her.

Good luck xx

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crazypaving · 04/12/2012 11:53

thanks beans. it's variable now but not as bad. todady is a bad day unfortunately...

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