I am a hospital-based Lactation Consultant in a Level II hospital in
Northern Michigan. I work with inpatients, outpatients and counsel
through a Breastfeeding telephone warmline. The following situation has
me mystified and I'm wondering if any of you can suggest possible causes
and/or management strategies for this mom.

This mother is currently breastfeeding her third baby. He is five months
old and is growing and thriving. Mother reports none of the usual
breastfeeding problems such as sore nipples, engorgement, supply or let
down problems or mastitis. Suddenly, at age four months, her son refused
to breastfeed from the right breast. This mom further reports that all
her babies suddenly refused to feed from the right breast. She doesn't
recall if the refusal happened at the same age--just that it was sudden.
She continued to feed from the left breast and the right breast slowly
stopped producing milk and became comfortable (following initial
engorgement).

Now that she is going through this for the third time, she is also real
curious about the reason. She expressed some milk from both breasts and
tasted it. She describes the milk from the left breast as sweet and the
milk from the right breast (the rejected one) as "sour" (she says it
doesn't taste salty, but sour). She denies decreased production or
problems with let-down on the right breast prior to this refusal. She has
continued to breastfeed on the left breast only for the past month. Her
baby continues to grow & be satisfied.

This mom recently read or heard somewhere of a connection between breast
refusal and breast cancer, so she is more concerned this time. Can any of
you shed any light on this? TIA

Amy Mueller, BSN, RN, IBCLC
Traverse City
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