BFing nuisances and bad manners on the boob - lighthearted thread

[PacificDogwood]

DS4 is now 6 months old.
For 6 months I have BF him (and will continue to do so) inspite of:

• him kicking and clawing me ALL the time when feeding
• him pulling his head back so far whilst pushing against my breast with his upper hand that he regularly pulls the nipple out, ouch!
• he pinches a bit of my bingo wing upper arm or muffin top waist with his lower hand really really hard
• he makes a very loud "hmmmmhmmmmmhmmmmm" noise, not 'yumyum' more a growl, which makes discreete BFing in public impossible due to decible levels
• he always cries when he comes off the breast; whether he comes off himself or I take him off for nibbling, whether he has fed 3 minutes or hours. Half a dozen sucks on his dummy and he'll spit it out and is happy
• he bites... well has done once. I think my reaction has warned him off big time
• he turns his head at every interesting noise (3 older brothers so lots of loud interesting noises) without letting go of me first; breast tissue is really amazingly stretchable

As he is No4 I am BFing I am quite staggered how many bad BFing habits he combines in his little person. The others all did some of the above, or had little phases of doing one of the other, but not all and all the time and from the start and for so long, gah!!

So, please add your BFing niggles and pratfalls and make me feel better about the love/hate relationship my son seems to have with my boobs !

he also used to pretend to be hungry so i'd get one out and then just lay his head on it!! not a problem at home but a pita in public!

My DD does the pinching very hard, and scratching. I'm covered in nicks.

There's one thing I do love though - if I put her foot in my mouth she looks at me sideways and starts giggling like mad. With boob in her mouth. Perhaps not one for feeding in public, that one :)

ds 21 mo quite often feeds stood between my knees or next to me but switches every 2 minutes or so. My dear mum, after observing him moving from boob to boob, suggested that he might be 'boobidextrous' (she is 76 and has only recently 'got' the idea of me breastfeeding at all!)

I can also identify with slapping/ pinching hands, feet in face and recently fingers pressing the odd (ahem) spot on my chin.

But what is lovely is the noise he makes in anticipation when he is just about to get 'boobies'. Aaahhh

Hi Pacific - good thread!

My 2.5 year requests "Mummy milk". In public. He doesn't get it. We are - fingers crossed - down to just one feed a day - in the mornings. He's also a radio tuner (love the description - so apt) and I bloody hate it.

6 mo DD is a scratcher and pincher. My upper chest is covered in half-healed scratches and spots. I look a sight in a scoop neck top, I can tell you.

Walkingonsunshine, me too -- I have a very happy memory of DS giving me a huge smile while feeding, with milk running out of his mouth.

sorry, I have to post this before reading thre rest - angeldog just made me snort with laughter, sorry!

I am very pleased I didn't get any nipple twisting but I did get pinching of various body parts, trying to stick fingers in my mouth, pulling my lower lip etc. mostly DS just used to pat my boob with his upper hand though, which was very cute.

OP, I feel for you. My number 3 was just like that. It's amazing really that our beautiful breastfeeding relationship didn't finish until she was nearly 2, because really, it was abusive. Number 4 is not quite as bad as her older sister, but she is highly distractible... It's not for ever though and she is my last baby afaik, so I'm fine about it. ah me...

Dd sticks her leg up through my top, it emerges near my collarbone. She's also really good at opening buttons, and has been known to poke down granny's and daddy's chests if mummy's not around..!

so here I am doing a nother night feed reading these on my phone over dd's head trying to be quiet so daddy can sleep through and am struggling. This is laugh out loud stuff only because it's so true.

We get the kneading and punching and pulling back with nipple still in her mouth. Smiling during a feed and burping loudly without letting go and then returning to the feed. She has also latched onto dh's nipples more than once when he's been cuddling her in bed - usually when mummy has had to abandon her to go for a wee. There's plenty of time to develop other habits. She's 16 weeks.

The thing that really annoys me (even though it's not that bad) is the foot that likes to rest on my chest or sometimes throat.

I'm feeding my 9mo at the moment and she is holding onto a bit of hair that has.come out my ponytail and waving it around. She also loves twanging my bra strap and has been known to send my glasses flying across the room with her random grabby arm - oh the joys

two year old investigating mybelly button

oh yes ds3 also helps himself during the night
sorts out #'more sides' when he is done with one
and often has a strop shouting'i want baba now!' when i try to distract him during the day.....

lo's little bird mouth pleading to be latched on again and I almost have her latched when she spews on me. I'm embarassed at how often I've fallen for that one because I don't want to starve my dc. At least boobs are a wipe clean surface?

Complaining about the poor service with her mouth full, ra, ra, ra, ra, ra, ra. Hurling herself back off the nipple with great force, leaving yours truly well exposed. Hurling herself back while still on the nipple because she wants a faster letdown.

Mummy's bad habit is reading threads like this when bfing at 4am and laughing so hard that lo has trouble hanging on. Revenge of sorts, I guess. :)

I'm loving this thread. My DD is guilty of all the above. Yep- the trail of snot when a phlegmy 10 month old cant wait for a nose wipe first thing in the morning. Fair enough. She's only bitten me once as my sharp yelp no must have worked. One of the many things I love about breast feeding is the way she strokes my side whilst she feeds but she is a pincher too. As for playing with her food whilst she feeds...well, I am waiting for the shipping forecast or something to come through the way she tunes my nipples mid feed

I love this thread!

DS2 is 21months and since he was tiny has always been able to find every mole I have within reach and picked & tweaked them. They are all getting a bit hard now.

Also he has bitten occasionally but I have a 2 strikes and your off policy so he has given that one up.

He is also a right boob sympathiser but so was DS1 so something about my left that does not meet their approval.

Finally when in public I used to try to maintain some modesty by pulling top down to just above his cheek. However, if I got too close he would fix me with a 'look' and grab the offending cover and push it up, revealing not just the boob he was on but very often the other. All the time continuing with the 'look'.

DD did bite me a couple of times (once hard enough to draw blood- OUCH!)
She used to do the extreme feeding- trying to find the most interesting position to feed in and she still tries to tune, but I tend to stop her.
Now she clambers on my lap and says 'milkie dink' or just prods which ever one she wants and says 'that one'.
Trinity I wondered if Gecko was still going too- I'm not sure DD is ever going to choose to give up!

So glad to read I'm not alone with the grabbing, pinching, biting, punching, twisting etc... charming behaviour!

DS's 'torture du jour' is rubbing the end of my nipple against his rough teething gums. It feels like he's getting busy with a cheese grater on me, and after 6 months I'm now back to heavy Lansinoh usage and gritting my teeth through a feed. Somehow though I can still say I love doing this.
Masochist

When we are having our bedtime feed, I'm lying down in bed, DD likes to back off a couple of feet, shout "Ready, steady bee-bee!" and then pounce on my breast like a deranged kitten. I have no idea where this has come from.

Another annoying habit is kicking the spacebar and moving the page up and down when I'm NAK

Another nipple twiddler, pincher and scratcher here. At night I have had to start folding my upper arm over my top boob to stop ds twisting it right off (at least that's what it feels like to me).

In the mornings I generally chuck a couple of toys into his sidecar cot and try to doze a bit while he entertains himself. All will be fine until he catches sight of a boob and gets the look of a commando about him as he crawls and lunges on my poor, sleeping breast!

DS was very snuffly and congested as a newborn (due to c-sec) and used to make loud "Eeee-aaaaw" noises when breast-feeding. Got some alarmed looks when I fed him in cafes (is that woman breast feeding a donkey under there?!)

Ah, nipple tuning. The things no one tells you about.

Ds is 9 months and is mostly an okay feeder, though he has six teeth and he's not afraid to use them. Also enjoys snot-wiping on my wipe-clean surfaces . We have (so far, touch wood) avoided spew on the boobs though.

When he comes into the bed in the morning, there comes a point when I lie on the flat of my back to straighten out and he will start yanking with his hands at the nipple or clambering up on my tummy to just have an ol' go at it. If I am on my side and he gets sick of one boob he will raise his head up and suck like a little calf.

Sometimes, I turn my back on him if dh is there and he will grab me by the hair and try to roll me over. A persistent little man

Actually, I've just remembered that I was dozing in our currently-being-refurbished house the other day and woke with a start thinking that DD was biting my nipple, only to find that she had in fact found a pair of pliers and was giving my poor nip a good squeeze. OW! Do I win?

Ow ow ow DitaVonCheese ! You win by miles