When Alicia was about 4 months old, she went on a nursing strike for a few days after the jabs that she took in the 4th month. It was a terrible time and nursing her became a time for battle again.
A nursing strike is when a baby stops nursing abruptly.
Dealing with nursing strike, I tried the following methods during this period of time:
- Feeding her when she’s sleepy/ just woke up
- Feeding her in a different way such as feeding her and walking around at the same time
- Offering the breasts often (I had to try very very hard not to make an issue of it when she refused me)
Fortunately, it didn’t last long (about 4 days!) and my milk supply didn’t drop much because I managed to coax her into drinking sometimes, especially when she was very sleepy. I would latch her on and give her dream feeds in order to maintain supply.
You can read the following (which I find useful) for more information on nursing strikes:
- kellymom – nursing strikes
- Is Baby Weaning or Is It a Nursing Strike? by Nancy Mohrbacher
Suffering from Latching Wars? Here’s my experience and some information which kept me sane and functioning.