Not Quite a Nursing Strike, But....

Maybe he has an ear infection on one side?

Hi I.,

My first thought was that perhaps he has an ear infection on that side. My first son had 8 ear infections in his first year. I remember his behavior was similar when he did have an ear infection. If he drinks from the bottle ok, then perhaps it's a medical problem.

Good luck!
J. M.

My daughter refused to nurse on one side for a long time. I tricked her by doing the "Football postion", just tucking her legs under my arm. She still would nurse on her "preferred" side, and wasn't aware that she was on the other breast.
You can start feeding him with expressed milk in a bottle, especially if you are worried about him taking it. Have someone else do it, like your husband or the sitter. Be patient, he'll eventually get it.

My son was doing the same thing. He never was into burping when he was younger, so it took sometime for me to try burping him when he started doing this. And that is exactly what his problem was. He'd let out a big burp and then was ready to keep feeding. We haven't had any issue since.

Hope yours is just as simple! Oh, he also has been taking both bottle and breast for months now, so this coming up wasn't just related to taking the bottle so often every day or anything like that.

Does he burp after nursing on one side? Sometimes they get a little air bubble that makes them feel full. Try that. Both of my kids took bottles and nursed from day one and it was never a problem. Good luck.

Every baby is different, so of course I don't know whether my experience bodes well for yours. But I was working full-time until my first son was nearly 2. I worked two days in the office and three days from home. On my in-office days, my aunt-in-law fed my son bottles of expressed breast milk, and when I was home, I nursed him. The only time he ever had an issue was when I took a week off when he was 7 months old. That week I nursed him exclusively, and after that he stopped taking a bottle at all. He was already eating solids (although not too well) at that point, so I guess he could make it through the work day until I got home.

So my experience was that as long as he got both breast and bottle regularly, he accepted both. I don't know why your son would suddenly be refusing to nurse on both sides, but if he's continuing to nurse, I'd say don't worry about letting him have a bottle later. If he starts a real nursing strike, then you might need to change tactics and try witholding bottles when it's feasible (like, if he's just nursed 30 min ago).

if your fear is that he wont transition well from bottle to breast, then i would suggest (from personal experience)
Playtex Drop-In bottles.
they are not cheap, but most sanitary and easiest from bottle to breast. the nipple is very similar to a breast and my daughter made a very easy switch back and forth. we used a bottle because Daddy wanted to feel also, so i used Playtex Drop-In bottles to keep breastfeeding easy.
they are very easy to clean and all you do is slide a drop-in into the bottle and twist on the top, push the air out and you are ready to feed. :)
but after one use the drop in must be thrown away and replaced with another one. that is where the $$ comes in.

good luck,

~~~~S.