I have been no mail for quite a while, but, with permission, I will share an email I received from a mom whom I have had phone contact with. Please post replies to the list or directly to me. Thank you.
I am a first time mom to a lovely son born Sept 30,2003at 6 lb, 11 oz. The past month and a half we have run into some issues, my son will only bf in his sleep. Here is our story:
He has been exclusively bf from the beginning. Once he got the hang of it we had a smooth bf relationship for the first 2 months. We used cross-cradle on the left and football hold on the right. When we tried to introduce the bottle at 6 weeks he got confused and did not BF for about 6 or 7 hours but we fingerfed him and he got over it.
All through December, nursing went pretty smooth except occasionally he would resist or pull off, elongate the nipple and go back on again. I did notice that his poops were greenish and really mucousy/foamy. I thought it may be an foremilk/hindmilk imbalance so I would pump some and then put him to breast, but the poops were still the same. The week of x-mas he seemed to be getting really fussy, especially at night from about 11PM to 2AM he would have a period of inconsolable screaming, that puzzled us since up until that point he was a calm, happy baby that hardly cried.
Since I was going back to work on Jan 9th, we started to try the bottle with him that week and the week of New Years. We were persistent but not aggressive and tried 2X a day from x-mas on. He never took it and would cry at even the sight of it. He held out for the breast each time and we had no difficulty nursing but the entire week he was getting fussier and fussier. The Friday of that week he was resisting nursing as well. He would do fine one session and resist the next, I was able to get him to breast with some coaxing. After about 12 hours of not eating, my mother and I foolishly forced him to latch on out of concern. Now I know it was really stupid of us to do so. He was crying and resisting but once on, ate from both breasts and fell asleep. (don't know if this was relevant but I was stressed out over going back to work and my husband and I got into a huge arguement that week) Starting the next day he refused to nurse. He turned red, turned away, his back seems to arch and his body stiffened while he was screaming. He did not want anything to do with the breast, not even to cuddle at the breast and he did not want anything in his mouth. He also refused to fingerfeed.and continues to refuse it. He did however nurse perfectly just as he was falling asleep, in his sleep or just as he was waking.
After 2 days of this we took him to the pedi and he weighed 12lbs 4oz. They thought he may have silent relux so he was put on Zantac. However 1 week of only nursing in his sleep and trying the zantac he weighed 12ibs 11oz. The pedi then thought it may be a milk protein allergy since he had occult blood in his stool and told me to avoid dairy, stop the Zantac and refered us to a pedi GI. We saw them at the end of Jan and they thought it was silent refulx and a sensitivity and they put him on a stronger dose of Zantac and told me to also avoid eggs and nuts. Since then they have put him on Prilosec and as of last week his weight was 13Ibs 8.5oz.
His nursing has NOT changed, we are going on day 53 of this. He does fall asleep every 2-3 hours in the day and eats some then, but his night feedings are where most of his nutrition comes from. He has lots of wet diapers and about 3 poops a day. We have done lots of skin to skin, co-sleeping and I carry him around most of the day. We have done tons of baths together and he does latch on in the tub. I have not changed any soaps I was using or worm different clothes and I am definately not pregnant and my menstrual flow has not returned yet. There have been times when he has latched on while awake when he has been distracted or playing. Also at times while nursing he has woken up a few times and continued to nurse. For a while he did nurse while awake on the left side while I was holding him swaying but this has not happened since we have started him on all these oral meds (he hates taking them). He won't even stay in the positions we used to use even while just holding him. I have tried different positions than our normal and still not much luck. At times he will cuddle at the breast and at other times he won't. He does suck on his fingers and toys but still resists the breast. Actually since we have added Prilosec he seems to wake up crying more at night so our night nursings are getting more difficult. He is not teething and there are no ear infections. He is overall a really happy baby, our only issue is this feeding thing. He still resists the bottle. We have started him on 1 tablespoon rice cereal in breastmilk and he is resisting that. He seems to be resisting anything food related. So I have no idea, is this a nursing strike or an oral/breast/feeding aversion?
Has anyone heard of any such situation and if so, how can it be corrected? I have thought about going to a speech therapist, an OT or a chiropractor and even considered cranio-sacral therapy? Does anyone think any of this may help? I really want to see an LC but my insurance does not cover LC visits and and I cannot afford it out of pocket. I live in the Boston area so if anyone does now of OT, chiropractors or cranio-sacral therapists that have experience with infants, please send me their names. I really want to work through this. I will exclusively pump if I have to but hopefully I will be able to get him back to breast. I have contacted Early Intervention, but they will not be able to see me until 3/17. Thank you for you help.
Marilyn Farland, IBCLC
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