DD seems hungry but cries when put to breast

[OhWhatAPalaver]

DD is 5 months and EBF, sometimes when i go to feed her she cries and pulls away from me. she gets herself really worked up about it and i have to calm her down by singing to her and rocking her in my arms for ages before she will latch.

my mum has seen her do this and just says 'she mustn't be hungry then' but i know she is. the other day she only had one feed in over 5 hours cos she was getting so worked up about it. needless to say she stocked up later on but again with some struggling. she is very distracted with everything at the mo but she doesn't do this every day.

i feel like i'm forcing her sometimes but if i calm her and feed her while standing up and rocking her she seems to take it... any ideas on why she is doing this? it kills my wrists to keep doing it standing up as i have tendosynovitis and possibly arthritis as well so i would love to know if there's anything else i can do about it! cheers folks :0)

Not teething is she?

I was just coming on to post about exactly the same thing. Also 5 months old, could well be teething but bonjela doesn't seem to calm him down. Only happens in the day too, fine at night during the many feeds. Also think this is why mine is up so much in the night. Will be hovering waiting for some inspiration.

Also knacking my nipples with the pulling about making me want to wind down the bfing sooner rather than later

My 5 month old DD is the same. I think she gets so distracted by anything around us - light / wallpaper / her hands - and she forgets she is hungry and pulls and wriggles away then she remembers her hunger so starts whingeing again! I've started to feed her in one place (in my bedroom) and now I've noticed she will start to settle as we walk up the stairs - she knows that means dinner.

I've also been using my hand to cup her face when she's feeding and I feel her starting to get distracted and pull away ouch I think this helps her focus a bit.

I'll be interested in any other advice you get OP as breastfeeding does seem harder work now than when she was a newborn.

We've been having this for quite a while now with ds (also 5 months). I put a post in here a couple of weeks ago as I was really reaching the end of my tether and resenting the fact that we never have relaxed feeding.

I had a lot of very kind responses, mostly focussing on the fact that he has been found to have a tongue tie and suggesting I get it seen to.

But what I have found to be the best advice actually came from my sister who also had quite a lot of feeding issues with her dc2. She told me that things only got better for her when she stopped looking for answers. She had also convinced herself that dc2 had had a tongue tie, reflux, cow protein intolerance etc but really it was none if those things and some babies are just like that. She managed to stop looking for a reason to explain it and went with it and things just got better. And she is still happily feeding today at 15 months.

And since actually listening to her and just FORCING myself to relax about feeding, things are a lot better here too. We still definitely have our moments but I do try to trust a little more that he will feed when he's hungry and try not to offer unless he's giving strong cues. He will also sometimes refuse even then and sometimes I give him his dummy just to calm down for a few seconds (and sort of get into a sucking rhythm) before I take it out and put my boob there quickly instead. It seems to work quite well. Or sometimes I just let him sit up and look around or have a quick change of scene before trying again.

I'm certainly not saying we've cracked it at all and I certainly empathise with how frustrating it can be, but at least just trying to relax a bit has helped us off in the right direction.

You could double check with the doctor that nothing could be painful in your LO's mouth (my little boy just had mouth ulcers, which caused this response). Once you've done that, I'd sort of agree with ag123 to try and forget it - I think then you'll get a feel for it just being her, or another issue

thanks everyone, it must be a common problem! i think she is mostly distracted as it usually seems to get easier the more tired she gets. i guess we'll just have to persevere and try to remain relaxed about the whole thing :)