From only one side?

[boogerbug]

My DS is 4 months old now and seems to have a very, very strong preference for which breast he drinks from. In fact he flat out turns away from the left and refuses to latch at all. I have tried just about everything with the exception of speaking to a doctor about it - which will be happening next Tuesday.

It's a little frustrating because I have to pump one side constantly and I just can't seem to keep up. He just stopped one day, after months of having no problems at all. /: It's been going on for a few weeks now.

Any ideas?

 

[Dream.dream]

Have you tried different positions? Might be something making him uncomfortable nursing off the other side

 

[SarahBear]

Violet had a preference for a while. Positioning her differently helped. I mostly cradled her to nurse at that point. So when I had her cradled for the left breast, instead of switching her around and cradling her with her head on the right, I just slid her over to more of a "football" hold and twisted my body a bit. The other thing I found was that she didn't have a preference (for a particular side) when I nursed lying down.

 

[Steph82]

I have a similar issue. LO will latch on the left and stay on for about 5min. Then he starts to fuss and when I switch to the right, he's fine again.

From pumping, I realize that my left produces less milk and that it is a much slower flow (2 steams tops vs 5 on the right). I think he just gets frustrated with the slow flow. So now I always start on the left until he fusses, then I switch over.
Have you tried to pump both sides and see if you have something similar or maybe a heavier let-down on one side?

 

[CandyDay]

I agree with the pp on the different things to try.

Just so you know you can successfully BF using just one side. So if you cant get LO to latch on the other side you dont have to give up BFing.

 

[boogerbug]

Thank you everyone! I would have posted sooner but it was a chaotic week!

I have tried just about every position possible. The only time he'll latch is if we're lying down and he's still a little groggy. I did notice a bit of a difference with flow, too. I did as suggested and pumped both sides to see. One is a little slower then the other. My dr. even agreed when I spoke to her about it.

I'm pretty sure that's just all it is then. So even if I'm a little lopsided, that's alright. I'm not planning on giving up BFing.