Thank you! I'm sorry you can relate.
He is such a good baby and only really cries when I try to nurse him. With the LC, she forces him to the nipple but he cries hysterically.. I can't even get him to go near it, he gets so angry! I think since I couldn't nurse a couple days after the surgery, he got too used to the bottle. LC said he knows the bottle is fast and easy. Will try a third LC next week in hopes it helps, but not sure what else can really be tried with him-- he has a total aversion to it!
Thanks again.
An International Borad Certified Lactation Consultant would never force a baby to the breast, I'm so sorry you have had such bad experiences.
There are a few things that might help:
Firstly skin to skin, naked baby on your naked chest, for as much of the day as you can cope with. The more he smells you, feels you, hears you, the more connected he will be with his instincts to feed from you. Let him play with your breasts, don't immediately stress that he has to latch, let him explore. This is a very important step as you say he wont even go near your breasts without being upset. If you are worried about falling asleep with him, google how to set up safe co-sleeping (you don't actually have to co-sleep but you'll be set up safely incase you do).
SNS - Supplementary nursing systems can teach babies that milk can come from a breast quickly and help them get bigger volumes of milk if their sucking technique isn't great.
Massage your breasts before attempting to feed (or let baby play with them, hit them, head but them - its all part of the same thing that stimulates let down)
Laid back breastfeeding/biological nurturing. A board certified LC can help you with this, but again it is a way of letting the baby find the breast in his own time and his own way.
Dont persist if he is distressed - he may be too hungry to attempt to learn a new skill. See if he'll take a small amount of expressed milk from a syringe or a cup (say 10mls) then he may be calmer and more able to take the remainder directly from the breast.
