Why does she do this???

[Oakmaiden]

OK - was wondering if anyone could shed any light here - preferably with ideas to stop my daughter from doing this.

Baby is now 12 weeks old, and when she feeds she has a dreadful habit of digging her hand into my breast and kindof pushing it away from her (still sucking). This means that my poor breast is dragged every which way - often dragged out of her mother as she suckles - and not only that but is also scratched to pieces because she tends to dig her nails in while she does this. It really hurts, and is starting to bother me quite a lot. It would be sad if having worked our way through all our early bf problems I end up stopping because my child keeps hurting me.

Now that I think about it she does it mostly on the left breast - not so much on the right. The left has always been the troublesome one - it was the most badly cracked early on - I still have trouble expressing more than about 1 oz from it, whilst the other is much easier - and also although she appears to feed evenly from both sides, the left often feels a lot fuller by the time the next feed comes along.

Anyone got any ideas why my baby is doing this, and what I might be able to do to stop her?

My ds went through a phase of doing this at 12 weeks too. He stopped doing it at 16 weeks.
He sometimes started pushing away when he had wind, so I'd check that first.
But the only thing you can do is to swaddle her, she'll like the comfort too.
HTH

Can you find a free hand to hold hers with? That's how I solved this problem. I thinking feeding is just a very sensual experience for babies, and that's what the behaviour is about.

Yup - my dd has done this too. In fact now I'm still feeding her at 17 months she's capable of even more mischief and sometimes decides that hitting me really hard with her free hand is a good game. Usually I can distract her by either giving her something to hold in her free hand, or holding it myself. She got in the habit of holding her hair with her free hand whilst feeding, so if she's being fidgety or hurting me I can sometimes calm her down by putting her hand on her head and then she plays with her hair.

They go through phases of doing stuff like this - then they settle down again!

I think it is just a sign of love. Ds, who is two, still sticks his hand down my top to cop a feel He does this esp if he is upset, sleepy or just snuggly. I think breasts mean love to them and they can't get enough of them - and they have no idea whatsoever that their erm, 'fondling' is killing you. You can keep her nails well trimmed which will help with the scratching, and just keep her free hand away as much as possible by gently holding it or keeping her wrapped up or cuddled tightly if possible.

Hi Oakmaiden, my ds (6.5mo) does a kneeding sort of action on my breast which stretches the nipple sometimes. I now put my free hand cupped around the top of my breast so he "picks" at my fingers and I can counteract his pulls rather than my poor breast. Or I put my shirt as low down as possible (not to cover nose) and he grabs and plays with my shirt. HTH

As for your left side, try expressing from it in the morning, stay relaxed (shoulders down) and massage it beforehand. Soon enough you will get more out. You defintely need to make sure it's being drained properly or it could lead to a blocked duct etc. (which I had lots of in the early days). And drink lots of water. I'm sure your dd is getting plenty from it, but I can relate to your thoughts.

My dd does the same (it used to make me feel like Mother Cat!), and all the things mentioned here have helped at one time or another. She also used to do it more on the 'troublesome' boob. I found that, if I wanted to start on the left boob, it worked best if I switched to R after a minute or so, then switched back to L. She thrashed and kneaded slightly less on L if I did it that way. She's a year old now, still thrashes, but much less boob-abuse - and much less pain for me!

My daughter did it too. I used to think it was when she was impatient for milk to come or when it came too fast. Gosh, finding it hard to remember now ... mommy amnesia ... but any way I remember it stopped after a short while.

Thanks for your replies. If only I had 2 pairs of hands it would all be so easy....

Hi Oakmaiden...my baby is exactly the same age as yours...it was great to read your message as mine has just started the same kind of behaviour - very firmly removing any hand in the vicinity of his precious nipple and pushing (hard) with hand and nails against my hand and then my breast. It feels almost like he's trying to push more milk out. The only way I can get him to stop is to gently cover his hand with mine at which point he grips a finger and digs into that instead! good luck with yours - hope it resolves

Oakmaiden - You are a mother. You ought to have at least 2 pairs of hands as well as the obligatory eyes in the back of your head!

Hi Lisa - just been reading your December messages - how are things now? Are you still breastfeeding or did you go for the bottle option? Hope all is well

Hm, that's a good idea - I'll have to dig out my old jewelry box and see if I have anything suitable.... Thank you.