baby breastfeeding fine until 4 months-help

[barca1]

I need help, my baby was feeding fine until she was 4 months. She is 5 months now and for the last month she comes on and off the nipple every few sucks, cries, wriggles and kicks off generally. It is a real battle at every feed and I want to keep breastfeeding. Any ideas?

Hmm. I have some feeds like this with my 5 month old. Not all of them though. Usually she is kicking off because she is:

a. windy
b. wants me to change position
c. thinks there are more interesting things to look at or do, other than feeding
d. is overtired (sometimes happens before a nap or the last feed of the day) and has to be calmed with some rocking before she will latch properly.

I have a friend who's little one had a nursing strike (refused to feed for a little while) because he got a real scare when on the breast (a friends dog barked quite close to his ear and it shocked him) and associated feeding with a fright. She found feeding him when he was sleepy got his confidence back. That didn't last a whole month though.

Not sure if that really helps, but hope you get some more answers soon...

Is it possible your baby is teething? It's possible that the vacuum created when nursing is painful. Try wetting and thoroughly wringing out a clean wash cloth; shape into a 'donut'; freeze until solid. Nice teething ring.

Good luck!

Watching this with interest because I'm suffering from the exact same thing with my 18 week old. Its comforting to know that I'm not alone!

The only time she will feed properly for more than a few minutes is when she is half asleep. Even then she is still not fully latching on properly. Just lazy on the nipple...arggh

sounds like a nursing strike. I don't have links to hand, but there has been a few threads on it lately.