Mikayla is very cranky today. She’s crying hard and she had this breast milk refusal attitude the whole day. This is so devastating for me as a mother. I feel like she hates me because I’m working. It’s like I’m not being able to build a good relationship with her that’s why she’s refusing me. This is the first time I’ve seen her cry that way. She cries as if she wants to shout “NO! I DON’T WANT YOU!”, she’s even pushing me away which is so weakening.

I breastfed my firstborn for 2 years and never experienced that kind of reaction. I really felt more hurt when she stops crying whenever her father gets her or anybody else, then cries again when I try to take her again.

Well, I let her cool down a bit and tried to take her calmly. She didn’t cry but she’s not looking at me, I tried to face her and catch her attention but she kept looking away. She’s really turning her face and eyes away from me. It’s so terrible for me.

So I Googled my situation and check if there would be a relevant result to this breast milk refusal situation. Search engines are really helpful, I saw several sites that talk about breast milk refusal. I read so many articles and found some possible reasons why this is happening.

I wasn’t able to take the links for resources but I just typed in “baby suddenly refuses my breast milk”.

Here are some common reasons I found:

1 Hormonal changes

They say that baby may refuse your breast milk may taste a bit different when you about or when you currently have your period. I felt relieved somehow when I saw it because I guess I am one week delay which for me is normal but quite alarming because I don’t use any contraceptive at the moment.

However, as I read through the articles, I found out that it can also happen if you got preggy again. I was like “oh noooooooooo!!!!” So even I am about to be late for work I rushed to the pharmacy and bought a pregnancy test kit.

Phew!

I might retake it next week if still no red days. Gosh, I really hope it would be negative. I have medical conditions and I don’t know if it would be fine.

2 Bottle confusion

She takes expressed milk and sometimes formula and whenever I get home or before I go to work, I feed her directly to mine. That’s what I really love doing — feeding her directly from me.

So that’s our routine and I don’t think it can be a reason.

3 Environmental changes

Not sure if it can be a reason but no.

4 Overproduction of milk supply

Well it not new to me there was a time that my baby doesn’t take my right breast because of an overabundance of milk supply. But today she just refused it all from 4 am till 2 pm(which is when I left the house).

5 Ear infections or minor injuries (I guess that’s what we call Pilay)

Two or a day before, I found out that there are some scabs at the back of her earrings. She had her piercings probably more than a month ago and I was advised that it should heal in less than a week.

So, I decided to ask my husband to take it off. Sterile earrings are quite stiff and hard to take off. As he removed one of the piercing bled.

I cleaned off her ears and the earrings of course but after that she was okay. But this can be a reason too.

Those are the common reasons I found on the web. Right now I guess I have to monitor it before bringing her to the doctor. I don’t really want to be panicky at the moment.

Should you take breast milk refusal seriously?

3:45 am — I just got home and she’s so happy to see me. Her body moved as if she was like the doggy in the window wagging her tail. I took her and hugged her so much as I really missed her. I cradled her and feed her directly with my breast milk and she took it happily. I guess the article I found earlier was right “do not take it personally”.

I feel sorry for my 50 peso challenge as I have used my 50 pesosesoses to buy the PT. I hope she’ll get engaged in taking my breast milk again.

Have you experienced this before? Hope you can share it with how. Cheers!

Bear with this post formatting as I have written it through my mobile phone.

Miely