Parenting Newborns & Infants (0-1) Support Group

Feeding your infant and ensuring they are getting enough nutrition is one of the most important aspects of parenting during that first year. This community is dedicated to those who are nurturing a baby, whether breastfed or formula-fed.

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/ Parenting Newborns & Infants (0-1) Support Group

Latching on issues at 3 months

Dawnee222
Dawnee222
I already posted this in the breastfeeding support group dissusion forum with no responses, so I thought I'd try here. My baby is a little over 3 months old. I work full time so she is bottle fed expressed milk during the day but I nurse her in the mornings/nights and weekends. I have not had any issues...up until now. This past weekend, she refused to take my breast. I tried and tried and the more I tried, the more upset she got. I thought maybe something was wrong with my milk but then I pumped and gave her a bottle and she drank that like she had never eaten before. This happened all day. The last few days, everything has been fine and she nursed from me with no problems. Yesterday she started doing it again. She would nurse for a few seconds then start whining and pull away. The more I tried, the more upset she got. To the point of she would start crying as soon as I put her in a cradle hold. I knew she was hungry as it had been several hours since she ate. My mom seems to think she might break a tooth soon since she's very drooly and her nose has been runny. But no fever and she's only 15 weeks. Isn't that too young to be breaking a tooth? Or, is it possible that she's just preferring the bottle now since she's bottlefed all day 5 days a week? But why no problems sometimes and diffulty other days? I'm a bit upset about this. I really wanted to nurse her for a minimum of 6 months, preferrably a year. Has this happened to anyone?
deleted_user
deleted_user
I would guess she's having nipple confusion, you may be having more difficulty at sometimes because she's too hungry. Nursing takes more work than the bottle so if she's too hungry she's just going to get frustrated because it's not coming fast enough which is why she's contented when you give her the bottle. When you're around her try feeding her before shes too hungry (if you're not already doing that)
That's my two cents
Good luck keep it up you're doing great u can make it to a year
deleted_user
deleted_user
One more thing let me add that it's not technically too early for a tooth, however I think everyone would agree at that age all of our babies went through an excessive drooling, chewing on hands (and everything else). Its just a new stage of development I would guess teeth are still 3-6 months out at the soonest. Of course I'm just going by my experience and what my friends have been through.
deleted_user
deleted_user
Definitely nipple confusion. The only way to solve it is to make sure you keep your milk production up (pumping after a feed if necessary, because that way, you will continue tohave a lot of milk and the baby will not have to work so hard to nurse) ; change all bottles to a slow-flo aka stage 1 nipple, get rid of any pacifier, and make sure that everyone know how to bottle-feed the bf baby:
http://www.kellymom.com/bf/pumping/bottle-feeding.html

To help get her to latch, try bf naked int he bathtub with her, or lying downin bed together at bedtime, or other times when she is relaxed and sleepy....you may also consider sleepign with her if not already...greatly facilitates bf at night.
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