When your toddler hates breastfeeding

Lydia Ndiziye, 26, gets so frustrated whenever other women discuss about how their children just love breastfeeding. She admires them and keeps wishing she could find something that would give her baby just a little appetite at least so he can also suckle the breast milk.Her four-month-old son, Jeremy, has always hated breast milk and will only suckle a little bit when he is starving. He looks more and more half-starved because of his extremely low appetite.Sometimes, the mother has to hold his mouth open while forcing droplets of breast milk down his throat. The only thing that keeps Jeremy surviving is the fact that he, at least, loves drinking water.This situation has left the mother frustrated as the sight of seeing her malnourished looking child, Jeremy, just stresses her.“He drinks lots of water but then he is missing out on the nutrients in the breast milk. I have tried various solutions after many hospital visits but many have been in vain while others work for a little while. I am on the verge of settling for formula milk even though I’ve been told it’s still very early to introduce Jeremy to packaged milk,”Ndizeye narrates.She is one of the many mothers who have to deal with the pain of a child who doesn’t like breastfeeding.However, sometimes babies go on a breastfeeding ‘strike’ that may last a day or two or even longer but there could be reasons why. Start with finding out why your baby may be refusing to breastfeed.Why babies refuse to breast-feedAt times the baby may not breastfeed because he isn’t well health wise. For instance when he has a stuffy nose, a cold sore or even an ear infection that will make it hard for them to breastfeed. Such moments make it hard for babies to breastfeed.Agatha Mutamba, a midwife at the Rwanda Military Hospital, Kanombe, says sometimes the baby doesn’t like the taste or smell of a perfumed product the mother has put near the breasts.Teething is another reason why babies may refuse to breastfeed because it makes them uncomfortable.Mutamba recommends that a very young baby needs at least six to eight feeds in 24 hours although she notes that the number of feeds may change as the baby grows older.