Breastmilk Rejection

Breastmilk rejection happens due to many reasons. But, when this happens, the baby misses out on essential nutrients. So, getting the baby back to the breast is extremely important.

What we do to solve this is:

1. Start will mother to baby skin to skin contact.
2. Understand why the baby stopped breastfeeding and identify reasons. Eg formula feed, gagging while feeding, reflux, nipple confusion, any other discomfort, mother’s restricted availability etc.
3. Discuss other comfortable positions for both mother and baby.
4. Regular expression to maintain enough milk supply. If the production is not enough, effective feeding position, power pumping, supplement milk production.
5. Encourage and instill confidence in the mother to breastfeed the baby through counselling.

For the baby, we

1. Observe a breastfeeding trial and note baby behaviour on breast.
2. Introduce restart breastfeeding methods like dreamfeed, distraction feeding, comfort feeding etc
3. Teach alternative feeding methods till the baby is not exclusively breastfed.