any support to keep breastfeeding? 7 mnth

[croutonium]

Hi All, I am new on here and joined so I could hopefully ask someone with experience how I might get motivated again.

My son is now 7 months old, eats the odd bit of real food but is still very much breast fed, several times a day and during the night too.

At the moment I feel like just sticking him on bottles and food for svereal reasons

1. teeth- 6 of them
2. nails- and he grabs, pulls and squeezes my breasts l feel like a pin cushion
3. he is getting nice and big, which I'm happy with, but so am I! Can't understand this one, since I eat healthily and I'm not on any funny diets
4. It's not that I'm even that tired, because the dad is really helpful and also getting great input from the grandparents but I'm just fed up of feeding for some reason
5. I'm fed up with being in demand the whole time
6. I'm not sure if I would like to get drunk again, I'm not really that in to drinking and am having the odd half or a glass of wine with a nice dinner anyway so I don't think it's that.

Normally my view is that breastfeeding is ideal if you can manage it, and it has been hard at times but generally worked I had imagined I would breastfeed him until he didn't need it any more, which is why I'm looking for some encouragement before I jack it. It would be a lot of extra work to do bottles now as I don't even have any. But I am sick of feeling like a cow/ pin cushion and would like my body back now.

Re: point 2. My DD2 had a thing about pinching my breasts. Which doesn't sound too bad except it got to the point that my blood was sealing me to my bra and I was starting to scar rather than heal .... at that point I put my foot down. I started holding her hand away every time she started pinching and saying "no" - however much I had to restrain her, however often. She got very annoyed. Several times she stopped feeding rather than continue but not be allowed to pinch me. I think she considered a nursing strike but she is, err, enthusiastic about milk and food! We came out the other side and she is now 2 and still on one feed a day, and never pinches.

If at the end of day you want to stop, then that is your answer. But you don't have to accept the pin cushion part.

Thanks for this- do you think he is old enough to be trained in this way? (7months). If so I'll try it

DS still tries to pinch occasionally (almost ten months) but is generally fine now. I found it helped to make a bit of a game of it - e.g. hold his hand and pretend to nibble his fingers to make him laugh.

Got to say I did start feeling fed up around the same time - I think for me it was because mentally I had 6 months in my head as some kind of target, & also because he'd started eating solids I no longer felt as necessary if you see what I mean. (And being chomped on and pinched didn't help either!) Now though DS is quite happy with fewer feeds so it's not quite so intense, but I still get the nice bits.

I've had spells when I'm really fed up of bf-feeding my 18 mth old still and think the fact that he's allergic to cows milk kept me going. A biting stage at 9 months was pretty tough! I found these stages did pass. I stopped with ds2 at 7 months and was heartbroken so I would say if you're not sure stick it out a bit longer!
The pinching sounds painful good luck, and if you decide you've had enough dont feel bad!

Yes, at 7mo he will learn! I think DD2 was about that age. By all means try a gentler approach like slightlysoupstained if you can get that to work. My DD2 was hell-bound and determined to pinch, we had a couple of all out battles and I wondered if I was doing the right thing, but honestly it worked out in the end (and I couldn't let her continue pinching). Do be prepared for him to miss a few feeds if he is like mine...

Thanks, I managed another day! I've noticed the pinching and scratching is much worse when he's irritated by teething pains so I'm going to stick at it for a bit

Hi!! It will get easier. My LO is 12mo now & he has been through various biting/pinching/scratching/stroking/etcphases. Phew!!!!
Teething does make it worse but I found if I said No firmly when he hurt me, took him off & put him on the floor for a minute before putting him back (& repeating several times!) certainly coincided with him stopping. At 7mo he is testing his boundaries & you can teach him that hurting you is not on.

Do you have a nursing necklace? I found a distraction like that helped. Also feeding when my boy is over tired is a no no.

My local LLL was also a good provider of real life support.
I also found taking a weekend off, leaving him with daddy for a long weekend & going to Ibiza with my mates (& a breast pump!) helped me remember I was still me!!!!! I am lucky that Daddy is so hands on & happy to muddle through without complaining when I took time off.
Good luck. At times like this just take it a day/a feed at a time.

My 11 month old is so so so much nicer to feed now than when he was 7/8 months. I'm so glad I stuck with it. I held his hand and made him stroke instead saying 'gentle' and took him off if he was too much. If he bites I find its because he's got a lazy latch so take him off and sometimes offer again making sure he opens his mouth nice and wide

Thanks for all the input, some good suggestions there. I like the idea of some time off, but haven't got the hang of breast pumping yet!

The other day after a feed I noticed blood on the little fella's top teeth and it looked like it came from the little flap of skin which has always been there. i looked in to this and realise that this must be a lip tie! he had a tongue tie snipped when he was really small and although we knew he had this top lip tie we didn't think anything of it, I didn't realise that this was a "thing". I don't know if anyone with this experience will find this thread, but I think this might have something to do with the feeding problems, as he develops more teeth it must become awkward to latch with the tie.

I have a necklace from Mama Jewels it is really helping with the pinching

Also 7 months, also a bit fed up with it. Think it's 7 months of having another person almost permanently on me! (not really but it feels like it, and i feel suffocated sometimes)

I have a teething necklace (gumigem) that i hand him if he pinches, although i have to watch he doesn't bash it around too much! No teeth but he does bite occasionally - No, off and teething gel have that under control for now...