Dear Gertrude

Breast feeding has certainly many advantages, hence considered the best milk for a baby. It protects the baby against infections and inflammation, builds up a baby’s resistance against diseases, provides necessary nutrients and most importantly creates a bond between mother and child. You have not clarified whether your baby was born full term naturally or is preterm, if there has been any problem like head trauma during delivery or if there is some mild birth defect like cleft palate. 

It is also important to know whether he is feeding adequately with a bottle or not.

However a normal new born baby may not always suckle mother’s breast. A premature baby does not have the necessary strength to suck. At times a new born takes some time to learn properly how to feed on a breast. Even a new mother may not know how to give her breast correctly to the baby to suckle. Apathy on part of the child due to sepsis or birth trauma may manifest as the child not feeding properly.

 If there is some birth defect like cleft palate, the baby will not be able to suck properly. A baby may have some infection in the mouth or around it like oral thrush or cold sore, which makes suckling painful. Therefore he would avoid feeding on the breast. Infections of the ear may also cause pain while he is suckling hence avoiding it.  If a baby has mild allergy to mother’s milk, he may develop indigestion after drinking it. For this reason also, he may avoid taking it.

It is said that the smell of perfume or deodorant or some cosmetics used by the mom may be unpleasant for the baby and so he avoids suckling because that makes him inhale the unpleasant smell.

For all these multiple reasons it is not easy to assess as to why a baby is not taking breast milk because a baby is not able to speak out his problem as to why he is not ready to feed on the breast. It is advised to get the child examined by a child specialist to ensure that he is healthy by all means. A professional nurse or midwife can teach you how to breast feed correctly. So if there is any problem related to your technique of giving the breast it can be rectified. If the baby sucks a feeding bottle, you can express the breast milk and feed him with a properly sterilised bottle. If he takes a very small amount at one time, try feeding him more frequently so that he does not remain hungry.