Neither of my babies have been great nursers. Both of them went on a nursing strike between 7-10 months. If you have never gone through it, it is the most stressful, painful, annoying part of breastfeeding that I have at least experienced so far. My current baby went through a long one. Almost 2 months of squirming on the breast, biting, scraping (yes, and it hurts!), and screaming when my tater was near his face. Despite all of the tears from both of us, we made it through. I stopped my baby’s nursing strike. I don’t know why he refused or why he went through the strike, but I am going to share with you how we (because he and I are a team) made it through.
What I did:
- Kept offering the breast after naptime and throughout the daytime
- Pumped when he didn’t empty my breasts
- When he showed that he was frustrated, I took him off and didn’t force
- I gave him something to be distracted with (a blanket, a small toy)
- I followed up with a bottle of formula or breastmilk
- He needed time and I kept being annoyingly persistent
Kept offering him the breast:
My little guy has been on a routine since about 5 months of age or so. This predictability has helped me write this blog, but also give us both a consistent routine. I feed him after he wakes up for the day, after naps, and before bedtime.
This works for us.
When he went through his nursing strike, I would offer him the breast upon waking up. If he refused, I would stop and then change his diaper. I would then try again after the diaper change. If he refused, despite feeling frustrated I would offer him a bottle and then in the middle of his playtime, I would offer him the breast. There would be times where he would refuse or he would take a few sucks, and there would be times where he would drink for a few minutes. It was really touch and go.
Pumped after feeding:
More often than not, he wouldn’t empty the breast. I kept saying to my husband, “now I know what blue-balls feel like”. It was painful. My little guy would drink before my let down and then he would come off. I often had a breast pump or my hand pump available to catch what my guy didn’t take. It was so time consuming and quite frustrating, but I had an end-goal, which was to keep breastfeeding and to ultimately stop my baby’s nursing strike.
When he showed that he was frustrated, I took him off and didn’t force:
There was nothing more that I wanted to do than smush his tiny little face into my boob and make him drink. But that is not realistic and definitely not going to happen. Instead, I would try to calm him down and offer the breast again. When that didn’t work, I would change his diaper, and then try again. If that didn’t work we would abandon ship and try again later…until then it was date time with the pump.
I gave him something to be distracted with:
As time went on, I tried to be crafty. You know, outsmart the little bugger. I would give him a small toy, get him interested and then tip him back. Sometimes it worked, sometimes it only worked momentarily, sometimes it was an epic fail. Different times, I needed different craftiness, I would say rhymes and use my fingers, or I would make really awkward facial expressions while talking to him. Literally, I tried everything to distract him. It was hit and miss with him.
I followed up with pumped breastmilk or formula:
Sure this might defeat the purpose of all of my efforts to have him nurse, but I refused to allow him to be hungry. So I made this decision. If this is not an option for you, who am I to say it is wrong. This worked for me, so this is what I did.
He needed time and kept being annoyingly persistent:
This is where the success happened. Sure it took 2 months, I could have easily thrown in the towel, but just like anything, consistency is key to success.
Feeling like I tried a million things, something just clicked in his head and he’s back, he’s nursing. With help from a lactation consultant, my own research and persistence, we did it. It was a long and at times; stressful two months but we’re back baby!!
I hope that some of the strategies my experience of how I stopped my baby’s nursing strike can help you and encourage you not to give up!
