What if your baby won’t breastfeed?
By: Joanne Aubrey, International Board Certified Lactation Consultant
This can be a distressing situation as a mum. There is an instinct to nurture and provide for your new baby and if, for whatever reason, your baby can’t or won’t breastfeed, this can bring up lots of strong emotions. It's important to find the right support and there are many successful ways to manage this situation.
One of my top tips is to always keep the breastfeeding environment a calm and positive place to be for both you and your baby, and continue with lots of skin-to-skin contact. My second tip is to always feed the baby in some way. If they are not latching or sucking effectively or they are refusing the breast for whatever reason, make sure that your baby is being fed another way. This can either be with your expressed milk (given in a cup, syringe, or a bottle), with donor milk if that’s available, or with formula milk. Don’t listen to anyone who suggests that your baby will breastfeed when they are hungry enough. Your baby will return to the breast more effectively if they are satisfied and calm.
There are several situations when your baby can’t breastfeed:
When you baby is born early or preterm and needs special care
If you are sick
If your newborn baby is very sleepy and this impacts on their ability to latch
Some situations when your baby has low tone, such as babies born with down syndrome
Sometimes older babies can have a nursing strike
In the early days after birth, it is common for babies to be quite sleepy, they try to latch but quickly fall asleep on the breast. There are many reasons why this might happen. For example, drugs given to the mother during labour and delivery will impact your babies ability to breastfeed. The effect of these drugs will begin to wear off in a couple of days and, in the meantime, it’s important to continue to remove the milk from your breast using hand-expression or a breast pump. The early days are crucial to building up a good milk supply for the future: the more milk that is removed from the breasts, the more supply of milk there will be to meet your growing baby’s needs. Babies feed around 8-12 times in 24 hours so aim to express for 15-20 minutes at least every 3 hours until your baby returns to the breast.
Other factors, such as inverted nipples or very large breasts, can also make establishing breastfeeding more challenging.
Whatever the reason for your baby being unable to breastfeed, don’t despair and make sure you reach out for professional help and support. With time and patience, most babies will be able to breastfeed successfully again.