7th day of Nursing Strike with my 11 month old - sad :(

[MomTo3Blessings]

My 11 mo old son suddenly refused to nurse starting a week ago. He will nurse at night in his sleep (one night he wouldnt, that was awful! he just screamed bloody murder while I viciously pumped with my manual pum!) Ive always nursed him to sleep so we've had a lot of late nights and hours and hours of him screaming. Im just so sad at the thought of him weaning

He gets upset if I even offer. Ive been trying to show him my breast in happy ways like playing peekaboo (sounds stupid but at least now he will look at it). Im trying not to get discouraged but I am. And so sad. He was drinking the pumped milk in a bottle and I could cuddle and rock him but now he wont even do that.

He's getting molars and they look awful. using tylenol, advil and teething tablets when it seems necessary but nothings working as far as nursing goes.

Im pumping 2-3x a day at the times he'd normally nurse. Today I had trouble even getting him to drink that. I wanted to nurse at least another 8 months

Just hoping for some encouragment. Maybe other mamas who had an older baby strike this long and then go back to nursing????

I dont want to give up Im just soooooo worn out, sleep-deprived and my hormones are totally messed up from this.

[Chloe'sMama]

When my dd was 11 months old she went through a period where she just didnt want to settle down to nurse. Very distracted and refusing me whenever I offered. This lasted about 5 days. I would take her into a dark, quiet room to nurse and cuddle. She eventually went back to 5-6 times a day and 1-3 times at night.

Good luck and I would say keep offering. Sorry you are having to deal with this.

[PatioGardener]

Can you stop the bottles and offer your milk in an open cup or if baby won't take that, a sippy cup? Usually for nursing strikes we try to stop any source of sucking that isn't the breast.

Keep offering in fun ways, and nurse as he sleeps - that's great that he is still doing that.

Good luck - I hope the strike ends soon!

[MomTo3Blessings]

thank you for your reply.

Im thinking that the bottle is not such a great idea, he definitely seems attached to it now. The reason I used it because he'd only nurse to sleep before, so sucking the bottle was the only way I could (sometimes) get him down.

I did go buy new sippy cups and he took the milk from there one day. Maybe Ill go just to that. He can kind of drink from an open cup but he makes a complete mess, and I know Id never get him to sleep like that. (he's not quite developmentally there)

Im so thankful he is still nursing at night. I will keep pumping another 8 mos if I have to, but I keep offering the breast as well. The molar is still not through - may have to wait for that to pass?

thanks