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Nursing strikes

What's causing your baby to refuse to nurse? What to do when she refuses the breast

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Originally published in Today's Parent July 2008

With two older kids romping around, I was often distracted while nursing my third child, Dan. When he was 10 months old, he caught me by surprise when he bit me. I yelped at the unexpected pain. Dan burst into tears. I knew I’d startled him, but didn’t realize how much I’d upset him until the next time I tried to feed him; he cried and turned away from my breast. Dan was on a nursing strike.

A nursing strike differs from natural weaning in that it starts abruptly and the baby often shows signs of being upset or unhappy. When babies wean naturally, it is a more gradual process as the baby slowly replaces nursing with other foods.

Determining the cause

I knew immediately why Dan was refusing to nurse. For Pamela Andrews, though, it was a complete mystery when her six-month-old son, Aidan, went on strike. “He would start to nurse, but then he’d cry and come off the breast. I thought he might be in pain so I took him to the doctor, but they couldn’t find anything,” says Andrews.

The doctor thought it might be a case of reflux and prescribed medication, but it didn’t seem to help. And treatments for thrush didn’t make any difference either.

Over the next excruciating three weeks, Aidan lost a total of 12 ounces. “I kept trying to figure out how to get him back on the breast, but nothing was working,” recalls Andrews. “I think it was the worst three weeks of my life.”

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