When I brought Isaiah home from the hospital, he was nursing just fine and then suddenly started rejecting my left nipple. I talked to an advice nurse from my H.M.O. who gave me the terrible advice of not giving him the nipple that he was taking and only offering him the one he wouldn't accept. She said that when he got hungry enough that he would accept it! That was the worst advice I have ever gotten. After 3 hours of this (Isaiah still would not accept the left side, and hadn't eaten for 6 hours), I called my local La Leche leader and she gave me the best advice! She said that the nurse had a good idea in theory but it is a very dangerous suggestion because breastfed babies get dehydrated faster than formula fed babies (which I knew, that is why I called her).

What needed to be done was for me to let Isaiah nurse off the side he liked, and when he was done, offer the side he wouldn't take (squeezing a little breast milk on it first) and let him taste it and play with it, then express out the milk to empty the breast. She said he would take it eventually. When he was refusing the left side and I was only offering that side he was becoming more and more hungry and was getting more frustrated with trying to latch on to that side to the point he COULDN'T latch on at all! Once I started taking the more relaxed approach of the La Leche leader, both he and I relaxed and in just a few feeding sessions he was latching on and nursing from both sides beautifully again.

Going through this has led me to realize the importance for correct information to get out to nursing moms when there are problems and the need for moms to have a good support person who has been through it all. Looking down at my baby while he is nursing now (we are both pros at it now) makes all these memories seem so long ago. It is amazing how each nursing experience (I nursed my other two children also) is vastly different!!!