Expert: ruth kraft - 12/25/2010

Question
My 4 month old boy was breastfeeding great until i got an infection in my breast ad went of meds. I am off and he is now refusing to nurse he'll latch and sec. later come off crying. I got scared from this that i gave him a bottle a day its been a week. I want to get him off the bottle and continue to breastfeed please help? I dont know what to do?
Thank you!!

Answer
He is likely frustrated that after getting a bottle your breasts don't produce the same instant milk supply. When nursing he has to nurse a few seconds to actually get a let down. you can try to stimulate your breasts for a let down right before nursing to help him understand again milk does come from breasts, you can try to nurse him right before he is really awake so that he is half awake half asleep. Sometimes it will happen because they instinctually know what to do and then they just get more interested after that again. the main thing is keep trying. He may refuse to take it all together but if you continue trying he is more likely to come back to it. Just keep pumping and pumping to make sure your supply comes back. If you didn't pump while taking the meds, then his refusal may be because your milk supply has dwindled. you will need to pump every 2 hours to bring it back up.

Best of luck!