16 month old crying after breast feeding

[Liloosmum]

My almost 16 month old daughter has recently started crying when she stops feeding. I always offer the other side and she usually feeds again and sometimes cries when she comes off that side as well. Any idea why?

My periods haven't come back yet and I'm definitely not pregnant! I went back to work 3-4 weeks ago, but she wasn't feeding a lot during the day anyway. I pick her up at 2.30 so can still feed her in the afternoon. On a work day (4 days of the week) she usually feeds when she wakes up, at 3.30ish, sometimes around 5ish and then bed time. If it's not a work day she also has a quick feed before her nap at 1ish as well so that's the only feed she's missing out on.

It's almost as if it doesn't satisfy her anymore. DH thinks maybe she's growing out of it.

Is she peeing and pooing OK? Showing any signs of discomfort anywhere? Is she teething?

Wees and poos seem normal. I don't think she's teething, but she probably is due some more teeth soon. She has seemed happy enough the rest of the time.

It could be that she's feeding infrequently enough for your milk to be moving to 'weaning milk' which is saltier & less sweet, and she isn't keen on the taste. I don't know how infrequently you have to feed to have your milk change though.

You get similar changes when you ovulate, so it's possible you are about to start your periods again.

One other possibility could be an ear infection which makes her ears sore because of the sucking. DS had an ear infection bad enough to push him into a 12-day nursing strike when he was 13 months, but he seemed happy and normal so I wouldn't have guessed until I took him to the GP on the advice of someone on MN.

I do think LOs do randomly odd things though.

At 18 months my DS started sticking his tongue out with an 'eurrrgh' expression, poking his hand into his mouth as if to remove a piece of fluff, then asking for a drink of water after feeds, especially at night.

I wasn't pg, and my periods hadn't come back but I thought it was probably that I was ovulating. 3 months later there's no sign that I was, but he stopped doing it after a week or so. It wasn't weaning milk in my case as he was feeding loads.