Strange behaviour whilst feeding (breast)

[loomer]

My DD (nearly 21 weeks) has recently developed a curious move whilst she feeds... she is pulling back with her head, whilst pushing my breast away from her with her hands... ?? Sort of rhythmical, like a cat/kitten that paws for food!

She also pops on and off toward the end of the feed to have a look around the room - I understand that this is common at her age, getting more interested in surroundings. But I don't understand the pulling and pushing - it only serves to elongate my nipple, which must slow the flow surely? Is it possible that my milk has suddenly started flowing much more quickly in the last two weeks?

I'm totally flummoxed, and slightly worried that this might lead to sore nips in the not-too-distant...

ithink its probably milk supply building. it wont do baby or yourself any harm. mine done this and hes now 30 weeks and still breast fed.

OMG ds went through a phase like this, it was so annoying. No idea why. It was around the 20 weeks mark IIRC. He grew out of it, but it really was a pain at the time. Sorry, can't add anything more constructive! Oh - I did try feeding him with a muslin over his head so he wouldn't be distracted. Didn't work, he just thought I was playing peekaboo and giggled. Sigh.

Thanks ladies - I can't think how it could possibly build my milk supply? Hopefully she'll grow out of it before her teeth start to come through.

Bumping for the evening crowd...

Dd did this from about 4-5m on...and on...and on. She turned into a right old thrasher and my boobs suffered! But I kept on feeding her, so that was OK, it didn't stop me. The only things I found that helped were to feed her in a boring, unstimulating environment (partial success), to take her right off the boob, put my finger on her mouth and look her in the eye and say 'No' (also partial success), but best of all to feed her lying down so that she could thrash to her heart's content. She would end up angled totally away from me, with my nipple and her mouth the only point of contact (so much for tummy-to-mummy! ), but would finish the feed contentedly and it didn't hurt me that way either.

I've no idea why they do this - and not all babies do it - but it really reminded me of kittens suckling from their mummy cat. For them apparently the kneading action stimulates the milk flow, but we're not cats!

my dd does this too!!If I remember rightly ds did it too.Can be quite painful on the boobs though.I have a feeling ds grew out of it.dd still doing it at 6 months but I ignore it unless she pulls off hard when it blummin hurts.

Hey, at least I know I'm not alone with this strange little cat-type-baby ! It is wierd isn't it?!

I will try feeding her lying down today, and see how she reacts.
Thanks again ladies!

Pupies do it all the time. THe vet told me it gets the milk going ... OUCH!

Sorry - Puppies