12 week old suddenly stopped breast feeding

It’s normal to fuss at the breast it encourages stimulation of milk supply in preparation for growth spurts you just have to persevere and keep trying to latch and they should. Unlikely to just suddenly stop like that x

Have you been giving lots of bottles? I started giving bottles quite late at around 4.5 months as she wouldn’t initially take the bottle. However once she started taking it, it wasn’t long before she started rejecting my Boob :( and just wanting the bottle! So I ended up stopping breast feeding! I was ready but she kind of made the decision for me! So all I would suggest is to maybe reduce the bottles you’re giving potentially to get her back on the boob more?!?

Has anything changed with your bottle routine? You say you’ve been doing it since birth but have you changed teat size or anything like that?

She gets mostly bottles (that way I can monitor her intake) and then boob at night time and she also snacks on it during the day. Last week MIL was in town so maybe less boob than normal but she still got boob at night.

I've actually just put the bottle teat into her mouth then slyly replaced it with my boob and she started feeding :-)

If she is increasing your milk supply she may fuss at the end when the flow slows down. When this happens do some breast compressions to help the flow. Can really help

But the feeding didn't last long, it's a sign that she prefers the test vs boob... which is a real shame. I'll keep offering her boob, as prefer to give her that at night rather than a bottle

@Emily what bottle are you using and what size teat? A nice slow teat will help with that. I have always done both bottle and breast with my two boys

Sometimes when they get more bottle they prefer the flow of bottle and because breast has a bit of more time before let down starts flowing they can get frustrated. My son did this for a bit. It’s frustrating but I just stuck to it and kept offering boob and eventually he kinda came around. Sometimes you can try to pump a bit first before you start nursing to get the letdown to start before so the baby doesn’t get so frustrated waiting for letdown but it’s kinda just something they have to work out

I'm using teat size 1. We actually spoke about going up to size 2 a few days ago, as she turns 12 weeks old on Thursday... but maybe best to keep on size 1 if she's now rejecting the breast?

@Emily size 1 mam? If so I would suggest a size 0

No, Tommee Tippee... we've been on size 1 since birth (it says 0-3 months)

@Emily aah okay. Tommee tippee are actually one of the worst bottles for a good latch. I would recommend changing to mam with a size 0 ideally. So with the latch on a tommee tippee I don’t recommend them and also find the size 1 can even be quite fast

you shouldn’t up teat size when breastfeeding as can give bottle preference as breast flow doesn’t change so they’ll prefer the faster flow of the bottle. Look up pace feeding. Teat sizes never needs to increase while using a bottle when breastfeeding x

But she's been used to teat size 1 since birth... not sure why she has suddenly decided to refuse the breast

@Emily babies grow so frequently and obviously need to increase your milk supply regularly so it’s possible she is doing that again now and getting frustrated now as she is getting older and realising the bottle isn’t like that. As I say - tommee tippee size 1s are quite fast even though they are the first size. Also as mentioned in my first comment - definitely try breast compressions towards to the end of a feed when she starts becoming frustrated at the breast

She won't even latch now, so can't do compressions :-(

@Emily are you pace feeding with the bottle? Sounds like bottle preference which is really common when combi feeding, bottles are so easy for them they don’t have to work like they do with the breast. If she’s being combi fed and you know how much she’s getting there’s no reason to think she’s trying to increase your supply and she’s fussing for that reason x

Just googled pace feeding, never heard of it! Yes she's finding the bottle easier and has gone on boob strike for the last 3 days