Toddler Nursing Strike, Day Six

Snippet has never been on an official nursing strike before, for which I have always felt so lucky. When he was around 8 months old, he skipped a few sessions during a bad teething spell, but he never went an entire day.....let alone six days.

The mayhem started last Friday, when the teething pain from his lower left canine was reaching full summit. He nearly stopped eating for several days, and abruptly stopped nursing. When he would try to latch on, he would suddenly jump away from me like I had poked him with a live wire. After a day of this, he started having really dramatic reactions to my offers, squirming and pushing at me with both hands, and once almost hitting the floor in his attempt to wrestle off my lap. I keep offering at our usual times, and he steadily refuses. The past few days, he has taken to quietly and resolutely pursing his lips together and just stares off over my arm. He won't even make eye contact.

I try to act nonchalant in response to his rejections, saying a happy, carefree, "Okay! Next time, then." La Leche League advises me to contain my feelings of sorrow and loss, to pretend as though his rejections mean nothing at all, as though he has politely declined, much as a customer would toward a waiter offering the evening's specials: "No, thank you, ma'am, I'm just not in the mood for filet, prepared in any sort of way."

I always took Snippet's hatred of whole milk in stride since he was still nursing regularly, but after a few days of the strike, I started to panic about the loss of all those good fats. In desperation, I bought a big container of Ovaltine and mixed it halfsies with pumped breastmilk and whole milk. Snippet's first sip brokered a grimace and a tossing of the sippy cup. Each day since, though, he has become a little more tolerant, drinking 3 ounces this morning. I am hopeful that even that little bit will help supplement him through this phase.

And, Yes, I hope with all my heart that this is just a phase---a terrible, brief phase. Just last week, I would call to him from the sofa, "Do you want milkies?" and he would happily come toddling over with a big smile, clutching his nursing blankie. He would continue to nurse, long after my dwindling milk supply had emptied out. I always, always had to unlatch him before he would detach himself. How could this same child, literally overnight, reject this activity that he once so loved?

I am pumping milk on our normal schedule, hoping to keep things just as they were, should he decide to return to nursing. It gives me some consolation to provide breast milk for him in a sippy, and makes the hideous routine of pumping feel practical and full of purpose (rather than a desperate bit of denial.) I have read online that strikes can last from a few days to 4-6 weeks. Each story I read detailing a 30-day strike ending in a happily reunited mother and child pair keeps me hopeful that our story will end just as sweetly. But, for each of those stories, I read ten that tell of abrupt endings, never repaired. I want him to return to nursing, even if he decides to self-wean just a few weeks later. I want him to leave nursing happily, not painfully. It's not that I want to nurse him forever---I just don't want it to end like this.