3mo constantly latching on & off

[car1sberg]

Hello

My 3.5mo has recently started pulling off the breast whilst feeding, literally on & off constantly every few seconds. She pulls off by turning her head to the side then quickly swishes back and latches on again for a few seconds. She has the odd feed where she doesn't do this and feeds continuously. What could it be?
She's become very dribbly and is sucking her fist a lot so I suspect she's started teething but could this be the cause?
Any ideas or advice most welcome, thank you!

It just sounds like normal baby behaviour if I'm honest. If it's not hurting, I wouldn't worry too much

Mine is the same age and also doing this! She's also incredibly dribbly so I wonder if teething may be an issue. I have no idea why she's pulling off so much but my extensive googling tells me it could be:

• frustration at a slow letdown
• frustration at fast letdown (why is it that the same symptoms can be caused by completely opposite problems?!)
• thrush
• maybe baby isn't actually that hungry
• wind
• baby getting distracted now she/he is getting older and more aware of surroundings, although it doesn't sound like that's what your baby is doing
• growth spurt fussiness (there is a big growth spurt at around 12 weeks)

And a few other possibilities here: kellymom.com/hot-topics/fussy-while-nursing/

None of them really seem to fit with my baby, so I'm none the wiser, but maybe it will for you?

My third did this around the same time. We had a very frustrating few weeks but it did pass without me doing anything special. Like you said, every so often we had a good feed so I just kept hoping for one of those each feed and eventually we got back to normal.

Sounds normal, to add the above list sometimes they're getting your milk supply up in preparation of a growth spurt x

@Tittie yes I've wondered about it being one of those things, but I don't quite think so. It could be that she's not that hungry I guess, as if in doubt I usually shove her on anyway who knows! She's done it for all feeds today so far bar one, where she had a good feed. I don't think she does it overnight (we co sleep and I barely wake up tbh) maybe too fast/slow flow?

Sounds like my baby! When she’s doing what I call “faffing about” coming on and off my boob I tend to take her off and sit her up for a bit and provide other distractions. We then try again if/when she gives feeding cues. Sometimes I was finding she would get to a point of upsetting herself from doing it, but giving her a distraction or playtime then going back to feeding at a later time has really helped.

Both of mine went through this faffing about stage at similar ages. It coincides with when they start to become a bit more aware of the world around them.