8 month old distractibility - help!

[cantthinkofagoodname]

My DD has stopped "asking" for breastfeeds in the day. She is BLW a few and eats 1 or 2 proper meals a day plus little snacky bits like breadsticks. She has a few sips of water but minimal fluid intake really.

If I offer breastfeeds, she is very distractible and keeps latching on and off before letdown occurs. I have to lie down with her in bed in order for her to feed properly. She will have about 4 or 5 short feeds of 5 mins each, only taking 1 side each time. Does this sound like enough?

This has been happening for a good couple of months now. As you can imagine this is affecting my life somewhat as I can't really go very far from home!

We co-sleep and she has a couple of good feeds in the night.

How many breastfeeds should she be having at this age (I am keen to do full term bf and let her self-wean) and will she grow out of the distractibility?

Anyone know?

Would be interested when you find out.

I stopped with DS1 before weaning but had same problem with both DD and DS2, and ended up giving up because they weren't really interested and because was back at work so only feeding 3x a day so milk supply dwindling as they were not prepared to work hard to keep my supply high.

Unlike you I wasn't prepared to fed in the night.... TBH I found the distractibility got worse - at 7 months DD was happy with bottle (although distracted with breast) she got distracted with that too later on.

OP - I think she is self weaning. This is what my DS was like while he was dropping feeds. He stopped asking at 7mo (I continued to offer) and had dropped 3 feeds by 9 months, out of 6. He'd keep latching on and off, looking round, giggling, twiddling, etc and even my failsafe bung a muslin over his head wasn't working.

I found that by dropping one feed he would feed much better at the others e.g. he would be dreadful at 12pm, 4pm and 7pm and by dropping 4pm he fed much much better at 12 and 7. However, my DS was different to your DD in that he also dropped the night feed.

He has always only fed for 5 minutes a side - in fact his feeds got longer when I dropped a couple, though they have shortened again now he is approaching 12mo.

He has been a fantastic eater from day 1 of weaning as well, though we did a mix of spoonfeeding and BLW.

We now feed only morning and night and he's settled and happy with this. I have no problems with supply - he took an extra feed for a couple of days no problem when he was ill and off his food.

Hope this helps.

Isn't she a bit young to be self-weaning? I thought they generally did that after the age of 2?

Will she be ok nutritionally with the food (she eats things like meat and 2 veg, toast etc) and a couple of breastfeeds? What about calcium and stuff?

Apparently distractibility at this age is normal, and is highly unlikely to be a sign of self-weaning (according to Kellymom).

8-10 months is supposed to be when it peaks. Interestingly, my DS has been like this since about 8 months, although not at home. He'll feed happily at home, but usually flatly refuses when out, even if he's missed 2 of his usual feeds. But in the last week he's been happy to feed when out again. He's a week off 11 months so I think it may be coming to an end for now.

It's frustrating feeling you can't spend the day out, isn't it? It's not so bad for me as DS only really sleeps at home, so I'm usually round here most of the time.

Don't know if there's a 'should' at this age - DS was (and is still at 11m.) having 5-7 feeds in the day and 1-4 at night, both of which are more than most babies I know of. As long as you're offering bf before solids (ideally around an hour beforehand), you know that she's not refusing bf because she's had too much food first. More from Kellymom on this here.

I agree that most babies won't self wean completely before 2, however they may well want to reduce the number of times they feed. I always used to offer boob before food. Boob would be refused, food would be demolished. There is absolutely no way on earth my DS would want (or indeed, I think, need) 6 feeds a day now. He just prefers solids, partly as an activity, I think. Some babies clearly remain boob monsters well into their second year.

WRT calcium - DS eats 4 large cheese 'sticks' (for want of a better word) for his tea every day - cheese cut into a similar size to a carrot baton, along with bread, rice cakes, vegetables, etc. He also has a daily yoghurt and for breakfast a large portion of Ready Brek with full fat cows milk, though these are spoonfed. He's happy and thriving - and he bounces with excitement when he sees me coming across to him holding his bib.

AngelDog - reading back the 'clearly' in the last sentence of my first paragraph sounds a bit sarcastic about your DS. It wasn't meant to be I promise.

Not at all, MissMarjoribanks! :) DS will have fewer but larger feeds if we're out a lot. Bouncing with excitement is lovely, isn't it - DS used to do it before getting more toddler-like; now he's too busy shouting at you to Hurry Up with the food because he wants it NOW.

And I agree, babies are likely to reduce the number of feeds they have around this age.

Thanks for that. I should have said DD can't have any dairy products at all, hence my concern about nutrition if she's dropping feeds too quickly.

I made a conscious effort yesterday to stay awake long enough to count how many times DD fed through the night and it was 5! These were proper feeds, not just comfort sucks and I feel rested this morning so I imagine it was a typical night. I'd assumed it was less as I'm half asleep and don't really notice her latching on.

Perhaps she's actually reverse cycling!?

Could well be reverse cycling - or just enjoying sleeping next to you! :)

It does sound like she's getting her calories at night, and during the day just taking enough to satisfy her thirst. Which I don't think is a problem if it isn't a problem for you.

My DS started to reduce his day feeds around 8 months (he started solids at 6 months, also BLW) so there may be an effect there too.