4mo suddenly not latching on left breast - what on earth is going on?!

[allejane]

Hi all - hoping someone has had this happen and can reassure me that it's just a phase, or can offer advice on what on earth could be going on here. DD is 4 months old and after a difficult start to breastfeeding (small mouth + large nipples = difficulty attaching) and using a shield until 6 weeks, breastfeeding is now as easy and natural as I hoped it would be. Well, it was until last Friday - nearly a week ago. I came down with gastro on Friday night and although I recovered quickly, my supply suffered somewhat so DD was feeding every 2 - 3 hours, 24 hours a day which I was more than happy to do as I didn't want my supply to drop even further. My supply has been fine for a couple of days now, and feeds have now returned to every 3 hours daytime and a six-hour stretch of sleep at night. Then, on Monday (so, four days ago), she suddenly decided that she didn't want to latch onto the left breast any more.

A breastfeed starting on the left used to be: attach - feed for 10 minutes - change sucking pattern to say 'Mum, I'm done' - detach - burp - offer right (sometimes takes it, mostly not). Now, a breastfeed starting on the left is: attach - suck twice - detach - attach - suck twice - detach - attach - suck twice - detach etc etc etc. She could keep going like this, getting increasingly frustrated, for 15 minutes or more. Sometimes she will attach and stay there for, say, 10 sucks, but will then detach again. Obviously this isn't enough to trigger the letdown so I had been moving her to the right, and expressing the left to get it drained. I am having no problems at all getting her to attach on the right which is a relief.

I have now discovered that DD can attach okay in the football hold, so I have been feeding from the left in the football rather than cradle hold, but I can't feed her in the football hold when I go out as I need pillows to get her to the right height!

My first thought was that the supply had affected ol' lefty a lot more than first thought, but I am easily able to express 100mL in about 15 minutes and I'm leaking again from the left, so the supply is back up to where it used to be. My other thoughts have been:
- Ear infection in the right ear which is on my wrist when she feeds on the left - ruled out my by GP yesterday
- Recurrence of staph infection in the left nipple - the last time I had staph was 5 or 6 weeks ago and I don't feel that familiar hot, burning, kind-of-itchy feeling I had last time there was a staph infection - I'm using Multi Mum compresses to repair any cracks DD may have re-opened with her recent feeding frenzy
- Teeth moving about on the right side of her mouth - could be a possibility?
- She has a slightly blocked nose - my breasts are pretty sizeable and she does look as though she's being smothered, but those little channels either side of her nose usually let air in pretty well. I've tried pulling the breast back from nose but she still detaches even with a clear 2cm from the breast
- Maybe I've unconsciously changed my position when she's on the left?

If there are other things that could trigger this odd behaviour, I would love to hear it! She did have immunisations done yesterday but this behaviour started two days before the injections, so that's probably not the reason... And I haven't changed my diet, apart from not eating for 24hr after having gastro.

I just want to go back to her feeding normally... and I want to not be covered in scratches from a frustrated, hungry baby

[Kmn]

I'm wondering if you have this happening now:
Mum concerned about attaching on left, tenses up a bit, letdown takes longer
4 month old baby - less patient than she used to be, wants it NOW
gives up and bleats for other side.

Try hand expressing the left before you attach her, so that the let-down is easier for her to trigger.

Can you cross your legs and rest her on your thigh and lean forward a bit when you are out - that's what I used to do with a football-hold-only bub.

[allejane]

Thanks Kmn - I think you might be on to something! The letdown was certainly very slow when I was recovering from gastro... And I hadn't realised (obvious as it is when someone else mentions it!) that DD's patience levels will not stay the same as she gets older! As it so happens she has been a lot better at staying attached today, I didn't try expressing before feeding (my hand expressing is rubbish) but I did consciously relax my body and mind when getting DD and I ready to feed, and did a bit of visualisation as soon as she attached which I've found in the past works well to get the letdown happening.

Good tip about the football hold too, I will try that one out! Obviously I will give it a go before I am out, nothing worse than trying to master a new position at a cafe or in a shopping centre - squawking hungry baby, not a good look if I can avoid it!

Thanks again for your help :-)

[onthefly]

slower letdown was going to be my first guess too.
I had something similar happen at that age, also on the left, with DS. He got all distracted and didn't really want to feed during the day. The right side was ok, so long as we were in a quiet, darkened room, but the left was just toooooo slow! I ended up lying him on the floor crouching over him to feed him in order to unblock it.
Sounds like you've got a good handle on this now - well done!

[buliej]

The other thing to consider is that your baby doesn't find it as easy to turn her head as required to feed from the left (head turning isn't as relevant in football hold). Chiros are good at addressing this. I am so not an expert - so take this with a grain of salt.

[Now we're 3]

Don't know if this will help or not but I had slow let down and used to use put a heated face cloth on my breast prior to latching him on so letdown occured quicker. I rarely actually felt my letdown happening so took me a while to work out. I used to just heat the face cloth by running it under hot water so most parenting room would probably work okay for you.

HTH x

[~ Mylitta ~]

I was going to mention possibly seeing a Chiropractor like buliej mentioned. Apparently it's very common for babies to require minor adjustments and it can help them feed enormously. I had my DS adjusted when he was quite young by a friend of mine who is a children's chiro. She could tell I was nervous about the adjustment so she showed me how hard she pushes and also used the activator on my arm first to show how soft it was. I was amazed that it would even do anything with such a soft touch, but DS seemed to get less wind after he had his adjustments.

Now that I think about it I want to ring her and see if she'll come and check DD as well