My baby is on strike

So we wake up one lovely Thursday and my little one refuses to nurse. She cries like there’s no tomorrow, she pushes my breast away and screams uncontrollably. I manage to nurse a little after a loooooot of time but it happens again after three hours. And again… And again....

It’s now Friday morning. Her first and second meals go smoothly. And just when I was about to believe that babies are like computers (restarting them makes all the problems go away!) her third meal comes and she starts all over again.

I go through Saturday like this, feeling so sorry for my poor baby and myself and on Sunday morning I call my pediatrician. I describe the symptoms, only to hear:
- No big deal. She’s on a nursing strike, she says casually.
- With what list of demands, I asked, totally frustrated while thinking about babies on the roads with strike banners in their little hands... 

Her polite giggle brings me back to reality, thinking how silly my question must have sounded. In a nutshell:
Babies can go on a nursing strike at any time. It may be caused by everything and nothing. To mention just a few reasons:
*Something might have scared them while they were nursing (i.e. a sneeze, a loud noise, you screaming because she bit you etc etc…)
*Teething pain, runny nose, earaches, etc,.
*They miss their mommy (especially if she has just returned to work)
*Mommy doesn’t have a mommy smell anymore (a change of shower gel, hormones, period etc.)

If it happens to you (and I strongly wish it doesn’t) they say that it usually lasts for only a few days (although I have heard of cases that lasted over two months) but there are some things that you can try (after talking with your pediatrician and making sure that the baby is not in pain). I tried the following::
1. Patience
2. Nurse while the baby is either sleeping or in a sleepy mode
3. Change the nursing position
4. Nurse without a top on and keep the baby with no clothes on at the same time to achieve maximum skin to skin contact
5. Take long baths with the baby (for the same reason)
6. Spend countless hours hugging your baby
7. Sleep with your baby
8. Nurse while standing, walking around the house (excellent exercise‼)
9. Patience (yes, I know I said it again but it’s THE most important thing). 

As I said, I tried them all. We would take long drives near her sleeping time because she dozes off in the car and I would nurse as soon as she slept. I would lay her on the bed and lay facing her and would nurse (which is ideal for night nursing strike or no strike). I caught a cold with no. 4. I mean, really, it was March and still a bit cold in Greece! No. 8 did not help. No. 7 is addictive for both mommy and baby! I took a PhD on no. 1 and no. 9!
And on the 25^th on March, when all Greeks celebrate the Greek War of Independence, my little one decided she no longer wanted to be independent and started nursing again. All’s well that ends well. 

 A few words of advice:
*If she doesn’t want to nurse, don’t push her. Stop and try again later.
*If everything fails and you need to pump out milk, use a breast pump and don’t do it with your hand. I tried it. It hurts and you can damage your breast.
*If you pump milk, try feeding her with a syringe or a spoon and avoid using a bottle.
*If you want to use a bottle, have someone else do it for you, so the baby will not connect you with the bottle.
*If you can’t stand it, do not be afraid to say “Enough is enough. No more nursing‼!”. Breastfeeding should be an enjoyable experience for both of you. Happy mums have happy babies. 

So that’s it according to my experience. But let us not forget that every mommy, every baby and every case is special and different.