More successful nursing-strike stories

This page is a companion to my Chronicle of a 40-day nursing strike. If you came here because you or a friend are dealing with a nursing strike, you'd probably like to read as many positive and helpful stories as you can find. Here's what I've found so far:

• La Leche League's article "Is Baby Weaning or Is It a Nursing Strike?" contains quotes from several mothers about their nursing-strike experiences.
• Carrie McKenzie's story of her son Gaelin's lip-repair surgery includes some information on the 13-day nursing strike he had afterwards.
• Schai's five-month-old Kyler had a three-day nursing strike after getting a cold.
• Elizabeth's six-month-old Delisla went on a nursing strike following a bout of strep throat.
• Laura & Jodie's Journal describes 17-month-old Jodie's day-and-a-half nursing strike following her mother Laura's return from a two-day conference.
• Mary Jozwiak's overactive let-down led to nursing strikes and other problems.
• Never Too Late! A story of hope for those with breastfeeding problems. Ramona Garrett was unable to get her son Joshua to nurse after his traumatic, intervention-heavy hospital birth, but after the birth of his younger brother Adam Joshua suddenly started nursing at the age of 26 1/2 months.
• Susan Betz's twins Maya and Dylan each went on nursing strikes (4 day and 20 day) at different times. This is really a wonderful story.
• Susan Shnowske's three-month-old son went on a nursing strike when antibiotics (taken for a breast infection) changed the taste of her milk.
• I hesitate to mention the omnipresent misc.kids nursing-strikes FAQ here, because some of the comments in it are appallingly counterproductive, unsupportive, and clueless, but there is some good stuff mixed in there too.
• Lactation consultant Debbi Donovan's article "Nursing Strike?" isn't a personal-experience story but does contain good advice.

If you or a friend have successfully made it through a nursing strike and wouldn't mind having your stories included here to help other mothers who are going through nursing strikes, please send me mail.

Susan Shnowske's story

Subject: nursing strike
Date: Wed, 12 Feb 1997 16:13:04 -0700
From: Daniel & Susan Shnowske

My name is Susan and my son and I *did* survive his nursing strike! When he was about 3 months old I had a breast infection. My son is a very picky eater and he objected to the flavor of the antibiotic in my milk. After calling the Dr. and explaining several times that formula was not an option for us, I got him to prescribe a new antibiotic. This one was taken less often and we hoped that it would flavor the milk less. Meanwhile, my son had decided that he liked the bottle better than he did nursing. (I had been pumping and feeding him the expressed breast milk.) I threw out the bottles and just kept offering him the breast. Thankfully it had only been a week, and after crying for what seemed like forever at each feeding, he finally nursed again. After 2 days of struggling with each feeding he stopped fussing before eating. I am happy to say that months later we are still breast-feeding and hope to continue for a long time yet! It is hard to watch them cry but I knew that if I didn't we might eventually have to use formula and I really wanted my son to get breast milk.

Elizabeth's story

Subject: Nursing strike
Date: Tue, 08 Jul 1997 19:08:30 -0700
From: Elizabeth & Billy

Hello,
            My name is Elizabeth. I'm a young mom of a beautiful 6 month-old girl. Three days ago Delisla began fussing quite a bit and drooling amazingling. I just dismissed it as teething again (although her first two bottom teeth caused her no pain), but when she woke up in the middle of the night burning with fever I decided to take her to the hospital. It turned out that besides teething, she had strep throat. Nursing was too painful for her and she was not in the mood for solids, so she went on without eating for about 36 hours. On top of all of this, we had to force antibiotics and tylenol on her, which really got her flipping. After that episode, Delisla didn't let anything that looked like a dropper, bottle, nipple (mine)or cup get near her mouth. I love to breastfeed her, and it was breaking my heart to see my baby hungry and dehydrated and not being able to do anything about it. After talking to several people, I tried to be really patient with her, I realized that forcing her was only going to turn her off even more. It took me about four days to get her to nurse again. I did this by putting a dab of her favourite dessert (Gerber's apple and raspberry puree) on my nipple. The first time she had a few sucks then stopped. The next day I tried it again and she nursed longer. I was so happy I felt like crying.

Elizabeth