Colleagues,
I am perplexed at a problem a mother has presented with.  She has a
four-month old baby who refuses to breastfeed at any time of the day or
night if he is awake.  He happily breastfeeds in his sleep, easily
draining his mother's breasts.  However, if he wakes up during this time
and "discovers" he is nursing, he lets go of the breast.  He is not
upset at this time and unless his mother attempts to press him to take
the breast, he does not become fussy.  If he is awake and seems hungry,
he will latch for only a brief time and then turn away.  This started
happening about two weeks ago.  His mother takes him to a sitter two to
three times a week for three hours, something she began to do about
three weeks ago.  She will be teaching at the local university in
January two days a week.  She pumps her breasts when she is away from
the baby and the sitter feeds him by bottle when she has him.  Now, I
know everyone will say this baby is nipple confused or on a nursing
strike, but why will he take the breast when he is asleep but not when
he is awake and why will he breastfeed well at night?  His mother states
she would like him to breastfeed directly from her but if he will not,
she is quite prepared to feed him expressed breastmilk by bottle.  The
bottle is her chosen alternate method for feeding and she is unprepared
to think of any alternate methods.  Her milk supply is unaffected by all
of this as she has been pumping when the baby won't feed.  She felt he
might be distracted by his older sister, but has not found that feeding
him in a quieter environment helps.  Any suggestions anyone?

Jeanne Hagreen, RN, IBCLC
Prince George, BC, CANADA
"One LC in the wilderness - it seems less wild since the Stepping into
Baby Friendly Conference in Vancouver"