Refuses breasts after trying a bottle

It could possibly be because of the flow of the nipple bottle. If it’s too fast babies might prefer the bottle over the breast because they don’t have to work as hard. when you do offer a bottle have baby work for the milk like if they were breast feeding..look up paced bottle feeding. Another way to get baby’s attention is touching baby’s nose with your finger or even nipple that has breast milk and see if he will open his mouth to latch on. I hope this helps

This happened to me at 3 weeks. It lasted for 2 days with me pumping and I kept offering the boob and eventually he has latched back on. Better on one boob than the other. Not helpful advice I know but a positive story.

@Katie so you were combi feeding as well? Did you carry on pumping?

@Katie or did you switch to breastfeeding only?

@Aliona I have carried onpumping and breastfeeding. I'm currently trying to phase out night time pumping

@Katie sorry, just to clarify, you give bottle with breast milk correct? Combi feeding? Basically it was just a phase and then baby took the breast again?

@Aliona yes that is correct. I gave breast milk in a bottle and carried on trying to get baby to latch and if it failed I just pumped instead. He won't take formula from me at the moment but he will from my husband. I think it's because I smell of milk and he gets confused

@Katie oh that's encouraging! I just want to be able to combi feed so my husband and mum can support and give me a little break here and there

Could you maybe try nipple shields so they’re used to the flow of your boob and then just try on the nipple after? X

@Yasmin I've not seen them before. Do they work ?

I used them with my first until he was able to latch as my nipples were flat after a breast reduction, obviously you don’t have that problem but would have thought it will work for your baby just to get them away from the bottle as they tend to get lazy. Will still give them the teat but make them do the work and then hopefully you can just offer your nipple afterwards! Will attach a link, worth a shot! X https://amzn.eu/d/59Lpw7o There are different sized shields but a medium should be good!

What bottles are you using? My LB is 21 days old today and I have combi fed since he was born, only started formula top ups at 2 weeks as he wasn’t gaining enough weight, due to my medication and eating habits, but I use MAM bottles and Nipple shields when breast feeding at night, I’ve found this works for me and my LB especially as he has a tongue tie xx

@Yasmin thank you so much, I will give it a go!

@Millie I use both MAM and Tommee. At first I thought I liked MAM more but I think the teat is too flat and this may have got him confused. I use tommee now more