Gah! Baby is milking me!

[marenmj]

8 month old (today!) has started to 'milk' me with her free hand while she feeds. She will push the heel of her hand against my boob and then squeeze the flesh to get the milk moving faster.

On the one hand, clever girl; on the other, I am not a cow and my boobs are getting pretty sore.

Any suggestions?

She can milk almost a full feed out of me before my letdown reflex fully kicks in

Heehee the clever little imp!!

My dd (10 months) now does something similar and also pulls my top down and helps herself which is fine at home but not so good sitting in Pret

I have no practical advice but just wanted to let you know you're not alone!

You are so not alone, DS has been doing something similar since he was about 6 months and is now a year. My boobs are going to be a total disaster area once I stop BFing!!

LOL, they do know where their milk comes from, don't they? Mine will whine and rub her face on my boobs or, if I'm not paying attention to her she will PINCH MY NIPPLES!! ACK!!

Apparently she has learned that pinching my nipples gets my attention - fast. Imagine that.

DS does this sometimes too.

If it's hurting, I move his hand and compress the breast myself, so he still gets a fast flow.

DD has done this from a similar age. If I am getting fed up or sore I try to hold her hand or put her hand to her or my ear as she likes to fiddle with both as she feeds.

Sometimes though she is just intent on the milking

It's normal. And clever. They will twiddle the nipple on the other side to stimulate production while feeding too.

Annoying though.

The penny has just dropped for me! My DS (7mths) has been whacking my breast, while he feeds, for the last few weeks and I had been wondering what was going on - I now think he has been trying to speed things up. I have been giving him a taggy cuddly thing to hold on to, to distract him.

DD either kneads the breast she is feeding from (in the manner of kneading bread) or twiddles the other nipple. V. annoying, but now I know why!