Six month old almost impossible to breastfeed- noisy and fighting me

[michelleseashell]

Firstly, I can only even attempt to feed in a quiet, dark room. If he hears or sees anything, he will latch on, latch off, latch on, latch off etc until I give up.

Now it's been seven hours since he last ate. I tried to feed him about three hours ago but he wouldn't have any of it.

Just got him home and took him into a dark room. He's fed- but while shouting mmmmmmmmm-mmmaaaaaaa mmmmmmmnmmm-nnnnnnmmaaaa the whole time and kicking and punching me. I have to pin him down to get him to eat at all.

He is partly weaned using baby led weaning but in no way can he be getting enough to eat that way. He barely has the co-ordination to put things in his mouth yet and he just spits things out when he gets them in. he has no teeth.

What do I do, do I let him starve or keep fighting him?

[MigGril]

I wouldn't worry to much about starving, he's not going to starve himself.

It can get a bit difficult when they get to this age when they are easly distracted. Appart from feeding in a quit room you could try keeping his attection at the breast by wearing a feeding neclaces or using a special interting toy for him to hold fiddle with while feeding. I finding holding DS hand while feeing helpfull to stop him pinching/grabbin and scrating me.

Also he's probably a lot more efficent at feeding then he was then little so hell be getting more then you realise even just having short feeds. One thing I offten find helps is making them wait a little bit longer then normal before even trying to feed. That way they are really keen to have a feed.

[michelleseashell]

Does this sound familiar to you then? It's a relief to hear I'm not the only one

Yeah I guess he won't starve. It's just worrying because he's always been so keen to have a nice quiet lie down and a feed. And I miss it too because it was my quiet time in the day too!

Another thing that worries me is that we co-sleep for about half the night and I don't know if he'll be filling himself up at night, not having a good night's sleep and not being hungry for the day.

I've never heard of feeding necklaces. Is there somewhere online I can look?

Thanks for replying!

[MamaChocoholic]

I have twins and whilst I remember ds1 being like this, I couldn't be having it this time round. so when they mess about the boob goes away. it sounds harsh, but I'm not trying to be! just matter of fact about it. then I offer again later. they've learnt if they're hungry to concentrate on the feed, and I know if they're not sufficiently interested not to push it. if he fills up at night I don't think it will affect his sleep - pretty sure mine can feed in their sleep :)

[MamaChocoholic]

oh, and to give you hope, they do get past the distracted stage and like the nice quiet feed again. your quiet time will come back!

[Whyriskit]

I could have written your post (in fact mine was very similar!) about 5 months ago! DS2 was so easily distracted that I dreaded feeding him - never mind in public which would have just been embarassing!
I did buy a feeding necklace which helped. I also think with him it was partly to do with teeth, he seemed to have been teething for several years.
Anyway, he's now 11 months, and quite happy, still slightly distractable but it's much more manageable now.

[sc2987]

I just learned to be patient with my daughter. I was pinning her down, but if I just waited, eventually (seriously, it could take a long time) she would get fed up of turning away to look at things/burying her face in the breast and missing the nipple and turning away again/making chicken noises, and get on with feeding (after a few false starts with a latch and a few sucks...).

I made a nursing necklace (wooden beads with rings which slide along them) but it only helps sometimes - other times she gets too distracted by it.