11 week old has become a right little rascal to bfeed during the day- any practical advice?

[spiritofstlouis]

My 11 week old has recently started to take very short feeds during the day and generally not be intersted in the breast. He'll latch on when hungry but soon find other things more interesting to look at or get annoyed if I'm trying to hold him tightly. He's not feeding more often in the day (2.5- 3 hours) but has started to have a couple of long feeds at night when he'd got himself down to one quick feed.

I've heard that this can be a common problem at this age so I wondered if anyone had advice about how to get through this stage?

Cheers

Try feeding in a quiet place with as few distractions as possible, perhaps in the corner of a room if in public or facing a wall. Sounds dreadful but it works.x

hi spirit,
thank goodness i'm not the only one, my 16 week old daughter has just started doing a similar thing including pulling or as DH calls it 'nipple twanging'
she likes to fiddle with a necklace but i find feeding in a quiet place seems to be working for us at the mo x

Thanks for the advice- have tried to make an effort to do quiet daytime feeds where possible and have managed to stretch them out a bit... hope it works as he was up for 3 feeds last night, you'd have thought he'd never eaten in his life before.

Will hunt out a necklace to try- he's just discovered how to grab toys so hope he won't get too distracted... it's hard to get annoyed with him when he won't feed as he keeps giving me huge grins!

Oh boy, it gets worse from here on in!!! You wait till the little bugger stops feeding to stick his tongue out or yell 'nahhhhh' at the top of his voice!

Nursing necklaces can help. I used to swaddle DD, every feed till she was four months old, and nurse facing a blank wall. She was still a wriggly little snacker though. So I started taking her out in the car or in her pram so she feel asleep and didn't get a feed for a few hours, then she woke up ravenous and fed properly.

Good luck!

Hi

I had this problem with both mine. Basically books tell you that they are soooo interested in what is going on around them as everything is all new that they have to look at it there and then as do not realise that it is not going anywhere. Until then do then they will just keep stop starting and it is VERY fustrating for dear old mum who is there with a nipple hanging out!!!!

try going into a room , nursery would be a good place, close the curtains so the room is dark and do it there. Alternatively if out and about I found that a muslin over shoulder and baby's head worked most of the time, just chose somewhere there is not much going on though else the noise will interest more than the milk - my theory is they will not starve themselves and what they do not drink in one feed/day they make up for over the next few days.

try a necklace round your neck as well as something for him to fiddle with. I have a silver pendant that mine likes to play with but just keep an eye on the strength of it as they can get tugged quiite hard at times.

Oh other thing I have done and still do is flick from breast to breast so it breaks little fellas concentration from what has disturbed him so he remembers what he is there for, briefly!!!

Hoep this helps but it does take time to get through it, as long as weight is going on then everything is fine.