Trying Cold Turkey - Medical Reasons

[firegirl57]

Hello all.
I am knew to the forum for posting, but have been reading for some time.  My DS is 7.5 months old.  He was recently diagnosed with some food allergies and his allergist said he needed to be put on soy, or possible hypoallergenic formula.  He used to take a bottle from about 4 weeks until 2.5 months when he started refusing.  I tried offering one every day, several different types, different people offering BM and formula and nothing.

This was all before the allergist said he needs to wean.  I also need to have a mammogram in a few months as a follow up to a suspicious one end of last year.  They told me for the best read, I need to have been dried up for a couple months.

Because of all of this and our struggles, we decided to try the cold turkey wean.  LO nursed last Thursday morning at 6 am.  He has had all of his normal solid feedings since, but is still refusing the bottle.  We are at over 60 hours with no nursing and no bottle.  He won't take a sippy either.  With milk, formula, juice or water.  I have gotten some formula in him by mixing it with his fruits and a little cereal so he is not dehydrating at this point, but I am still concerned.  I have been pumping in the am and pm mostly for comfort, and I know my supply has dropped a lot.  I have heard of babies going a couple days, but not this long.  Any advice?  We even tried putting a bottle in his mouth while sound asleep and he just spits it out.

I fear if I don't BF tomorrow, my supply will be next to nothing and then we will really be in trouble if he won't take a bottle or sippy because we will have no way.  Can I still assume that he will cave and he is just one of the stubborn ones? 

[zeri]

(((hugs))) to you! I don't  really have much advice; my DS refused the bottle until 11 months too. We could get him to take a sippy if I had to go out for an appointment, but only if it was free flow - he flat out refused it with a filter in it. My only other suggestion would be to maybe try to spoon-feed him the formula as if it were soup?

[Erin M]

Like the PP said, try spoon feeding.  Also try a medicine dropper (squirting it in his mouth), and open cup, a different kind of sippy cup (lots of BF babies do better with a straw cup than a cup with a spout -- or if you have one with a spout, take the valve out so it's more free-flowing.  Have you tried different temperatures of milk, etc as well? 

Do you have a few weeks before you absolutely have to wean?  Most LOs will take a bottle with enough persistence, but it does generally take a few weeks of trying at pretty much every feed before they will take it.  If you do, I might just start nursing again and work on the bottle -- but as you're already 3 days into this, I'd hate that you put both you and him through this for nothing. 

Does your doctor have an opinion on this?  This strikes me as something where you need some in real life help, more than we can offer on a forum.  Can you pump more often to keep your supply up just in case? 

(((hugs)))

[Fiver]

Hugs - FWIW regarding 'drying up' for the mammogram, it will likely take longer than a couple of months for there to not be any milk in your breasts.  Dr Jack Newman is currently doing some research on this, but many women find that they still produce at least drops of milk up to a number of years after cessation of BF.

Hope the mammogram comes back clean either way

[*Liz*]

Hiya, I have done 2 cold turkeys with my LOs. Sounds unreasonable doesn't it?? But both for medical reasons. The first due to allergies, and the second due to my newly diagnosed health issues.

DS was 6 mths when I did it, and DD 8 mths. Both of mine were not big on solids at that age, so I found that they both accepted and started to take more reliably at about 48 hrs, but of course their tummies will have been empty.

What I did when I weaned DD (simply as I remember better as it was more recently) was pump and offer EBM first. I had a bit of a failed day the first day, fed by breast in the night and then from the first morning feed offered nothing but a bottle with EBM. On the second day she accepted the bottle after she woke early from her pm nap, and I was simply overjoyed!! And from that point I used EBM through the day and bf the night feed as I obviously couldn't pump enough to cover that. Then I diluted the feed into formula, and DD started to STTN  , so I dropped the final BF and then just reduced how much I pumped by until I didn't need to anymore. I think about 2-3 weeks or so.

Both my kids took EBM first rather than formula.

I this an option?? Can you pump a bit while you sort this out??

I do understand the stress of it all, and when I weaned DD I was under great pressure to stop. I had 2 weeks to stop completely, as the drugs I needed are definately not suitable for breastfeeding with!! But it did all work out fine.

FWIW I don't know your age, but mammograms are very unreliable under age 40 regardless of breastfeeding anyway, and obviously even more so when feeding. I saw my breast feeding mammograms and there was grey 'white noise' everywhere. I had an ultrasound first, then the mammogram, which did show the lesion up, but it was 4cm so hardly small! And the size on mammogram was completely wrong. I ended up having MRI scans of both breast as they are FAR more accurate. My point is that there is another option, and if there is something that needs another look at could they not do an MRI rather than waiting unnecessarily for the breast milk production to go down???

Oh, and in my situation, I did discuss everything with my health visitor and our 'plan B' if she wouldn't have the bottle was to allow her to wean onto a solid diet with dietician advice to ensure nutrients were OK. Far from ideal, I know, but sometimes life throws us the difficult situations, and there usually are solutions.

HTH 

[firegirl57]

Thank you all very much for your replies!  It really helps to know there are people that understand!

Finally, about half way through Sunday, he took 8 ounces from a bottle!  He refused the rest of the day, but today he took 4 bottles ranging from 2ounces to 5 ounces! Definitely making progress.

I had no idea it could change things for years on the mammogram!  I am under 40.  I had to have the mammogram because I found a lump.  I had both the mammo and an ultrasound.  There were "calcifications" that were diagnosed "probably benign."  An MRI isn't an option for me because I have metal in my lower spine from a back surgery.  Hopefully the next one will be clear enough that it isn't hanging over my head any more!

[Erin M]

Good luck and (((hugs))).
Glad he's taking some from the bottle now, that must be quite a relief. 

[*Liz*]

That is great news. I often think these babies just don't know what to do with a bottle at all, and that is the barrier really, rather than that they are being difficult iyswim?!

I remember Megan gulped them down in seconds one she figured out the sucking action. Took her a few days to do it nicely and calmly.

Did they biopsy the lump at all?? I can imagine it is very stressful, but I am sure they feel it must be benign really else they wouldn't want to just leave it for a follow up mammogram. I suppose calcification does show on mammogram regardless. A lot of metal can go through an MRI these days, but you do need to find out exactly what type, and often it is the very old stuff that can't.

(((hugs)))