5 Common Reasons Why Baby Is Rejecting Your Breastmilk
According to babycenter.com, drinking breastmilk in the first 6 months of a baby’s life boosts your baby’s immune system against a long list of bacteria and virus infections as well as allergies. This is because the milk your body produces in those first joyful months contains a high concentration of an ingredient called secretory Immunoglobulin A (IgA). It also contains all the nutritional ingredients baby needs to enjoy healthy growth and development. So I can understand your worry when your baby starts rejecting the milky nectar that is an elixir of life for her at that stage. The best way to tackle this is to understand why your baby maybe acting up like this so that you can take specific steps for specific the reasons. We were able to put together 5 common reasons why your baby could be turning up her nose at this breastfeeding business.
Your Stress Mode
Did something your mother in-law said upset you? Are you stressed out from home or office work? Or was it that you didn’t get enough sleep? Well, if you’re stressed up, your body responds by reducing the flow of milk at initial letdown and this could make baby get cranky and fussy. She’s just trying to tell you, “hey something is wrong here. We’re not getting enough juice here. Can’t you see I’m hungry?”
If this stresses you further, you’ll be making the case worse. Try taking deep breaths to calm yourself. Go to a quiet place and also try to hold baby and maybe rock her gently so that she also calms down.
Can You Feel My Pain?
Your baby maybe feeling some pain somewhere that you’re not aware of. Or maybe you are. This could be the reason why he’s finding it difficult to keep at the suckling. It could be an injury or yeah, maybe he’s growing new teeth. You know even adults feel the pain when they’re growing new teeth. You should check that out.
Thrush is another cause of pain that may be affecting baby’s breastfeeding. Thrush is a common yeast infection that makes baby’s mouth sore. It may come from your nipped or as some experts believe, may have been contacted from the vagina during birth. If baby has thrush, you’ll observe white patches that look like dried milk on baby’s gums but when wiped off, they reveal red sore patches. If you have thrush, you’ll feel some pain in your breast. You need to get treatment for that.
Can’t Go With The Flow
Sometimes, babies may get fussy when breastfeeding because the breast is flowing with too much or too little milk. If mom gets enough rest in the night, her breast produces a lot of milk and this may cause initial letdown to be too fast for baby so they’ll protest. The flow may start nicely but then becomes to fast or too slow and babies find this overwhelmingly worrisome, I tell you.
You can help baby by clamping down on your breastfeeding with your index and middle finger, lie on your back and let baby lay on your stomach and suckle or use a pacifier, according to mamanatural.com
Slow milk flow cam be caused by stress as we pointed out earlier or you’re not eating and resting enough.
What’s On Your Menu?
Your baby may just be expressing her distaste in the task of your milk because of something you eat or ate. What you didn’t know that what you eat affects the taste of your milk? Well, now you know. Researchers in Denmark found out that a mothers diet affects the flavour of her breastmilk for at least 8 hours after she has eaten. Different meals take different time to affect the taste and these changes may be what your baby is observing and responding to.
Now this fussing and rejection may just be temporary or not. The catch here is to be observant. Watch what you eat and how baby reacts. They may grow to like a flavour they didn’t like or not. Just be observant and do the needful.
Cosmetic Breastmilk? Nah!
So you want to get back on your chic game or you want to get rid of those changes that pregnancy and childbirth has caused to your skin. You go get a new cream, cologne or body spray. Your hubby and friends are expressing their admiration or love for the new fragrance and you’re generally feeling good with yourself. Except for one snag: baby has started pushing off your breastmilk offerings. You don’t know why?
Try and stop using that new cream or cologne for a bit and watch if she’s still rejecting your breast. Experts and experience have taught that babies react to changes in the way your body smells. This is because their sensory and cognitive receptors are very sensitive at this stage of growth so you may want to hold on for a bit longer before you start trying to get your chic back.
Well…that’s about all for now. Your baby may be refusing to breastfeed because of any one or a combination of these factors. Her health should be of utmost importance to you so you should really take these things into consideration and be observant. Cases differ so the cause for one baby’s rejection might be different from yours and so is the solution. Remember to take it easy on yourself and love life.
Thanks MIM
Very well noted.
Noted & thanks
thanx mim