Nursing strike... Miracle... stressful weeks!

I started the title but didn't have time to write anything, because I was too busy dealing with a very fussy baby, plus a very mind-challenged six-year old the same time!

I went to Circle of Mom asking for help, this is my message there, kind of described what happened at the beginning:

Since two nights ago, my 6month old daughter has been refusing to nurse. She will arch her back and scream when I put her to my breast. I walk her around and rock her while I try to feed her or I will wait until she is sleepy, but still unsuccessful. I thought she was teething since she bites/sucks fingers sometimes, but I don't see any tooth cutting out. (She already had two cutting out couple weeks ago). I doubt she has ear infection since looks normal and plays well. This is especially frustrating when she awakes in the middle of night or morning hungry but can't eat and we both loose a lot of sleep.

She does take bottle better twice yesterday and drank 15oz all day with some rice cereal and applesauce. I tried to pump but can barely pump anything out now, guess I'm too stressful. I'm afraid my milk supply will stop soon. One of my guess is she just learned to drink from bottle few days ago, and has been eating with spoon. So she is either too busy with learning all the new skills or confused.

I am stressed out and frustrated I'm thinking about weaning her to a bottle. Is this just a stage she is going through? What can I do to get her back to breastfeeding or at least eat at normal amount?

Well, miracle happened on the Good Friday. She slowly start taking milk again, but very cautiously. I just want to cry at the moment! For several weeks, the whole family was exhausted since she cried so much at night and woke up for 2-3hrs playing since 2:30am. Then the daytime struggle continued... she is as happy and sweet as she always is, just struggle with eating, reflux, tummy pain...

I checked with drs. She guess it's her reflux coming back again! It was painful for all of us. She is so painful, especially with the silent reflux when she laid down, that's what's keeping her up many times at night. The reflux and gas medication don't help that much either. She just have to outgrow it! So, I've been watching my diet, modify her feeding schedules, massage, medication, whatever it takes to get her feel better. Six-month sounds like a big transition period.


Today, three weeks later, she's doing much better. Back to eating milk again with some solids, but still have bad spitting up and reflux everyday! I'm already happy she only wakes up 2-3times at night and goes back to sleep soon! Thank goodness!

Meghan sure looks fine when she plays: