Why Is Your Baby Refusing Your Milk?

For every mommy, you might have experienced a certain period where your newborn goes on a breastfeeding strike. This turn of events might puzzle you. Why would your newborn turn away from their only source of nutrition? Should you get your baby to the doctor about this? If there is one thing we can be sure of, is that there are a couple of underlying issues behind this. So why is your baby refusing your milk? Let us delve deeper to find out!

Your Baby Have Discomforts

Your little bundle of joy might experience mouth pain during breastfeeding due to teething, thrush or a cold sore. If your little darling has an ear infection, it can cause pain when your baby is sucking or lying on one side. Furthermore, vaccination-related injury or soreness might cause discomfort in a certain breastfeeding position.

Plus, a stuffy nose can also cause discomforts for your baby as it prevents them from breastfeeding properly. For infection-related issues such as thrush, ear infection and a cold sore, be sure to consult your doctor on the medications for your child. Stuffy nose? Try to suction or clear their runny nose before breastfeeding. If your baby is uncomfortable lying on one side, try switching positions and see how it turns out for your baby. Keep changing and adjusting your position until your baby feels at ease.

Your Baby is Tired or Stressed

Sometimes, your little darling might just be too tired to feed or overstimulated.  Keep in mind that delayed feedings or having the baby separated from you for a long time might cause difficulty to breastfeed them. Sometimes, your baby is simply too distracted to breastfeed. So how do you solve this issue then? One way to treat this issue is to breastfeed your little bundle of joy in a quiet room, free from noises or distraction. 

Does your baby feel too tired to breastfeed? Caress your baby more and try to get more skin-to-skin contact with them. That would encourage and stimulate them to latch on. Breastfeeding your baby when they are very sleepy is also a good idea because your baby is a lot calmer and easier to feed.

Your Milk Have an Abnormal Taste

This might surprise you but it does hold weight. Some babies might refuse to breastfeed due to the abnormal taste or odour in their moms’ breast milk and yours might taste funny. Some items such as soap, perfume, lotion or deodorant might alter your scent and this might cause your little darling to lose interest in breast-feeding.

Speaking of breast milk, changes in the taste of your breast milk could be affected by the foods, and medications you consumed. Hormonal changes such as a period or being pregnant again are also identified as potential culprits behind your abnormal breast milk odour or taste. 

The solution? Have more breastfeeding-friendly meals! So what to eat when breastfeeding then? Try to incorporate more garlic into your meals because garlic is a lactogenic ingredient which gives a pleasant flavour to your milk and improves your breast milk odour. Plus, garlic eases the introduction of breast milk to your baby and encourages your baby to stay latched on longer!

Your Milk is in Low Supply

One of the most common deterrents to your baby wanting your breast milk is the lack in supply. A lesser milk supply would equate to slow milk flow and this might discourage them from breastfeeding further. How do you resolve this then?

For a start, you can have more lactation-friendly dishes or lactogenic supplement to encourage your body to produce more milk. Now that we have mentioned it, what foods help produce breast milk then? Ingredients such as ginger, fenugreek and fennel are key to boosting your breast milk supply. 

Ginger has a property of warming up peripheral temperature presumably by the effect of vasodilation, a mechanism that may explain the possibility to boost milk production through increased blood supply for the lactating breast. This will promote a better blood flow. Thus, consuming ginger helps in improving your breast milk supply through enhanced blood flow. This makes ginger one of the best foods to boost milk supply.

Meanwhile, having a fennel-rich meal would help you reduce the inhibitory effects of other hormones such as dopamine on your breast milk production and ensure a smooth milk flow. But that is not all! Fennel-rich foods are easily available and they can be prepared in various ways to suit your preference! They can be eaten raw or cooked to perfection. Sounds like a hassle-free meal to dine in!

Another alternative is to pump your milk more often and utilise breast pumps to increase your breast milk supply. Speaking of breast pumps, you might be interested in what MumChecked have to offer. They provide plenty of breast pumps options in various shapes and sizes for your convenience, as well as other breastfeeding accessories and baby care items!

These are just some of the reasons why your baby could be refusing milk. Should your baby experience any one of these conditions, our solutions might come in handy for you! For further information on lactation and meals that might ease your breastfeeding issues, you can check our website out! We have a plethora of tasty and healthy options for you to indulge in. Think lactation, think ReLacto!