Baby losing the knack?!

[RachelG]

My DS is nearly 15 months old. He was fully breastfed till 1 year, then I changed him to cows milk during the day, with breastfeeds morning and evening. DS is a poor sleeper, and still often has a night-time feed. And his morning feed is at 5am. So it's great being able to do these as breast feeds - I don't have to get up, I can feed him lying down, then go straight back to sleep. I really want to carry on doing this, ideally for a few more months. In the daytime he has milk or water, from a cup or bottle (he prefers bottle because he gets more in his mouth!)

However, in the last couple of weeks he seems to be struggling with the breast feeds. It seems like he has to work harder to get milk out, and sometimes can't get a proper "grip" on my nipple! Sometimes he gives up, and if I then give him a bottle of water instead he's fine. This morning I knew he was hungry because he hadn't had a feed for about 10 hours, but he struggled, kept "falling off", couldn't get a rhythm if you know what I mean!

Could he be losing the knack? Is there anything I can do about it? Obviously I don't want to force him to continue breastfeeds if he doesn't want to, but I dread the thought of dragging myself downstairs at 5am every day to warm bottles of milk!

Any thoughts? Thanks.

[shazronnie]

Your supply may be dwindling as he bf's less, but he could just becoming lazy! If he wants to feed he is able too, but lots of babies at this age naturally wean themselves off the boob - it could be that he is just not too bothered about it anymore!

5am - not nice! Could he have some water or juice? You could put that in the bedroom at night ready for the morning.