Expert: ruth kraft - 8/21/2009

Question
Hi, I just brought my baby girl home from the hospital and every time I try to feed her, she refuses to latch on and screams. I know she should be hungry, it has been way too long since her last feeding. She is extremely tired and falls asleep very easily. I've tried every position I can think of and I'm very worried. I'll put her on my breast and she screams, hits it with her fists, pulls away and absolutely will not eat. What can I do?


Answer
you need to call the lactation consultant at your hospital and go back for an evaluation. You just have to keep offering and offering the breast. You can start pumping to make sure your breasts get stimulated and then give the pumped milk to the baby in a eye dropper... NOT a bottle. a bottle will make it worse. It will make her refuse the breast more. But you should start pumping and do that asap. And offer the breast as often as possible. even after shes fed. The more practice she gets ,the better she will be. If you offer a bottle and she takes it, she will take the breast. It is about what you teach her to take....

Call the lactation consultant or go to www.llli.org and find someone local for a breastfeeding evaluation to help fix the problem.

good luck
www.honoringwomen.com