Struggling to nurse 3 month old

[rugrat]

My LO is 3 months old and has been exclusively breast fed since he was born. Last week, he suddenly began sleeping through the night and was no longer nursing at night. Before this, he was still nursing at least twice at night. I noticed that once he started doing this, he also stopped waking up for feedings during the day (he used to wake up every three hours from his nap like clock work in order to eat). I've had to start waking him up in order to get him to eat. Around the same time as all of this, he has suddenly started crying and refusing to latch when I try to nurse him. He'll push me away and pull at my hair as if he doesn't want to eat even though I know he must be hungry (for example, he'll do this first thing in the morning when he hasn't eaten all night). We struggle for a while and eventually he calms down and latches, and then nurses for his normal period. At first this was only happening a couple of times a day, but now it seems to happen almost every time he nurses. He doesn't appear to be in pain while eating, and doesn't appear to be sick at all. At first I thought he was upset because my milk supply seemed to be lower than usual after he stopped nursing at night, but now it seems to be back to its normal level and he is still getting upset. I'm not sure if I should be taking him to the doctor since he seems to be perfectly healthy otherwise.  Any ideas as to what may be going on? 

[sahmmie]

Does he fuss at the breast even when he is not awakened to eat? If not, it could be that his growth rate has slowed down and he just doesn't need as much and when you wake him to eat he's groggy and angry because he's tired.

I would just wait and see how he does over the next few days and don't be afraid to let him space out his feedings. His tummy is bigger now than it was when he was a newborn and he may be able to get by on fewer feedings because he can take in more when he does eat.

If he wakes, cries to eat, and still fusses at the breast that would be a bigger problem. Possibly infant reflux, but I wouldn't worry about that just yet. Just let him wake to eat and see how he does for a while. 

[rugrat]

Thanks for the advice. I'll give that a try. It just worries me when he starts to approach the four hour mark and still shows no interest in eating. Since he's dropped his night time feeds that would mean he's only eating 5 times a day. But maybe he's just getting more efficient. I'll see how it goes!

[MichelleZB]

Does he have a tooth coming in and it's just bothering his mouth?