If your baby refuses to breastfeed, you will likely be worried and stressed about your baby’s nutrition. Find out the common causes for a nursing strike so you can properly address it and get your baby back to normal feedings.
Breastfeeding really can be stressful enough without having a baby go on a “nursing strike.”
As a breastfeeding mom, you can often find yourself wondering if your baby is getting enough food to eat since you can’t measure what is going in.
When a baby goes on a nursing strike (refuses to nurse), it definitely ups that stress level quite a bit. Are you producing enough milk? Is there something wrong with the baby? Is your baby just done breastfeeding and you need to move to bottle feeding?
A nursing strike does not necessarily mean you have to stop nursing. You can often do things to work through it and continue forward with your breastfeeding experience. In this post we will talk about why nursing strikes happen and what you can do to get past it.
Why a Nursing Strike?
There are many possible reasons for a breastfeeding strike. Here are some common causes:
What Can You Do to Fix the Nursing Strike?
Here are some things you can do to help your baby be willing to nurse again.
- Trust Your Baby: A child is just not going to let herself starve. Trust that your baby will eat when she needs to eat. She might skip the feeding altogether but will be hungry at the next feeding.
- Relieve Discomfort in Baby: Give the painkiller, clear out the nose, try different breastfeeding positions, treat the thrush…do what you can to help your baby be comfortable. Some nursing positions are better than others for a teething baby or for keeping the nose clear. You might even need to try a different feeding position if your baby recently had a vaccination and the legs are sore.
- Fix the Routine: If the baby needs a longer schedule, do it. If the baby needs to get down for a nap sooner, make it happen. Fix the routine to allow for a baby who is ready to eat.
- Pump: It is a good idea to pump so your supply doesn’t drop. Get a pump and pump to keep your milk supply up. If you stick to breastfeeding, your baby will want to eat again and you will want some milk there for your baby to eat. Pump milk and save it for an emergency or for mixing in with solid foods.
- Go in a dark, quiet room: Go into a quiet room where baby can focus and not be distracted. You can try holding the baby’s hand or letting your baby play with a necklace–though a toy can definitely backfire. You might also need to let the baby try that new skill of crawling out for 5-10 minutes before breastfeeding.
- Relax and let the letdown come: With my fourth baby, I would find if I was distracted and thinking of a million other things, my letdown wouldn’t even come when my baby was older. She would look at me and whimper in a heartbroken way and bring me back to the present. I would always try to start the nursing session off with relaxing and just imagining the letdown coming so my body would let it come and she could eat.
- Watch Growth and Diaper Output: If you are stressing out about baby getting to much, watch the things you can measure. You can measure diaper out put, growth, and contentedness. If those things are all on track, let go of the stress.
Conclusion
If you face a nursing strike, try to stay calm and focus on finding the cause. Address the cause and pump in the meantime to keep your supply up.
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This post first appeared on this blog in September of 2015