One other note. When my son got to be about 8 months-1 year old he was really easily distracted at feeding time. I solved this problem by turning off all the lights in the room--getting it as dark as possible and not talking or making any sound. It helped him focus on the task at hand. When my daughter started to crawl away during breastfeeding times at that age I would pull her back to me and say, "It is milk time." Sometimes she would fuss but I was really consistent with this and now she knows that when mama says it's time to drink milk, it is and she doesn't put up a fight at all. Sometimes I would have to pull her back to me 2-3 times during a feed but by not giving her the option of getting down and playing I established that milk time is milk time.
Baby won't nurse during the day? Distracted? Reverse Cycling?
- Thread starter evgreen
- Start date
OK i'm officially calling a (partial) nursing strike. I spent the entire weekend trying different things. I took up some of everyone's suggestions (quiet, darkened room, nursing necklace, etc.). First feeding of the morning hasn't been going well, she will only nurse for 3-4 minutes and that's it. It doesn't help that she wakes up at 4am wanting to nurse. I tried to hold off the 4am feeding this morning in hopes that she'd be more interested in her morning feeding later. Well I struggled with her for about an hour until 5am before I finally gave in to nurse her. :-(
I pushed back the mid-morning feed by another hour so that there was 1 hour between the milk feed and lunch (around 11/11:30) hoping that she'd be hungrier. No dice. She nursed for maybe 3 minutes and when I tried to put her back on my breast she actually CRIED - like red faced angry crying. She ate her lunch as usual. In the afternoon, I got rid of the 2pm milk feed all together and nursed her right after she woke up around 4pm - this was successful and mostly due to the fact I think I caught her just as she was waking up and she was still very groggy and sleepy. She nursed as usual right before bedtime and 2-3 times thru the night. *sigh* Seems like she only wants to nurse when she's half-asleep or asleep.
I think much of this may be induced from teething. I hope this strange behavior doesn't last long.
I pushed back the mid-morning feed by another hour so that there was 1 hour between the milk feed and lunch (around 11/11:30) hoping that she'd be hungrier. No dice. She nursed for maybe 3 minutes and when I tried to put her back on my breast she actually CRIED - like red faced angry crying. She ate her lunch as usual. In the afternoon, I got rid of the 2pm milk feed all together and nursed her right after she woke up around 4pm - this was successful and mostly due to the fact I think I caught her just as she was waking up and she was still very groggy and sleepy. She nursed as usual right before bedtime and 2-3 times thru the night. *sigh* Seems like she only wants to nurse when she's half-asleep or asleep.
I think much of this may be induced from teething. I hope this strange behavior doesn't last long.
Question: Do you or have you co-slept and breastfed that way? With my daughter, even now, sometimes when she's not feeling well (teething, cold, over-tired) the easiest solution is just to let her latch on and then both of us go back to sleep.
My son was really like that--wouldn't breastfeed unless he was really tired, asleep or half-asleep. Any other time he would stiff-arm me and would have none of it. I only breastfed him for six months, largely due to this.
I think you gave in a little too soon for the afternoon meal. If she misses one solid meal she's not going to have any ill-effects from it. But, if she drops that afternoon nursing/milk intake that could kind of be a blow to your breastfeeding. At least for me, it would definitely affect my supply in a negative way. I think you'll have to hold out a little longer and then just keep offering the breast. I found that in order to keep breastfeeding my daughter and not have to be up all night the morning and noon feeds were the most important. Have you tried cup feeding instead of using the bottle? It takes about a week for them to get the hang of it but my daughter was a pro at drinking from a cup by the time she was about 6 1/2 months old.
If I was in your situation, I would even consider dropping out solid foods altogether in the afternoon and in a way "force" her to go back to milk and breastfeeding. Babies can only eat what you give them. She might put up a fuss for awhile but she will get hungry enough to eat. I would still do a breakfast meal and dinner as long as she had breastfed or had a good milk intake for the day.
And, for sure, teething really made both of my kids fussy--the younger one even more fussy than the older one.
Well, she's much more efficient at eating when she's asleep. When she refused to nurse yesterday, I pumped and fed her the milk instead. She finished all of the milk! So, something about nursing is really switching her off.
My daughter seems to really like the cup and has been drinking from a cup for some time now. She's been on bottle strike too several times and will usually take milk or water from a cup instead when that happens. I have been partially co-sleeping with her for the past few months. If she wakes up too early in the morning, I usually bring her in bed with me.
Anyway, night issues are a bit different. Still have to tackle this daytime nursing strike and hope to see some improvement this week. I found some good teething nursing strike related suggestions on Kellymom.com and will try them out today (e.g. icing her gums before breastfeeding).