toooo muuuucccch comfort feeding.

[Arsed]

reposted after i posted in chat by mistake..

My Ds is 9 months old, he was 3 months early so is still very small, he's developmenally right for a 6 months old, ish.

Getting Bf going was hard work and when he was discharged his weight gain wasn't great so we fed all day every day so that we didnt have to top up and he's carried on feeding a lot since then, he uses me like a dummy. He he such a boob monster I feel like i have my boobs out more than in, epecially when we are at home. Whenever he gets upset he wants boob, he feeds to sleep, he cries when i leave the room and then when I come back he wants more boob.. he can sometimes be fed every hour. I think i made a mistake offering my breast everytime he cried.

Up untill now he has been completly demand fed and i don't want to stop feeding, i am more than happy to continue for aslong as he wants but i am fed up with not being able to so much as eat my dinner without feeding at the same time.

He Will Not be comforted by anyone else. it's me (and my boobs) or full on heartbreaking tears. We went to the pictures, left mil in charge and he woke up and screamed for 3 and a half hours. when i got back he look so relieved to see me, i have not left him since but now we've reached a point where i need to go back to work. We need the money.

What do i do ? he wont take a bottle and I dont think its about food anyway.

Is there a way of stopping the comfort feeding ?

Hello,
I have a comfort feeder too but only at night. I have cut down the day time comfort feeding mainly by using distraction...if she cries and before I might have offered her the boob, instead I pick her up, cuddle her then give a quick change of scene, e.g. out in the garden, look at this toy you haven't played with today etc. The only time this absolutely doesn't work is if she has hurt herself e.g. fallen over, in which case the boob is an instant soother for all bumps and knocks and calms hysterical crying like magic. (My dd is nearly 12 months though - at 9 months she was probably having 3 daytime feeds still, and at 6 months loads of milk!)

Have you tried a dummy? My dd wouldn't ever take one but I do wish I had persevered a bit more when she was smaller. It would make night time easier now! At night we are co-sleeping and I still just feed on demand...3 times a night is a good night. I did have plans to night wean at 1yr but not sure how realistic that is now!

One other thing, how are his teeth? Dd always wants to feed a lot (at night) when teething and I think it really soothes the pain - could he have some/more coming through?

Thankfully nights are not to bad. he goes down at 7 and usually sleeps till between 2 and 4 and then wakes frequently for milk, we co sleep from the first wake so he helps himself, i think he stays pretty much latched on between 4 and 7 when we get up but i sleep so i don't mind.

We did try and dummy and he would take one occasionally but then it kind of fell bu the wayside. I wish we'd carried on with it too now.

I'll definatly try the distraction thing

Your probably right about the teeth, he's got 2 lovely shiney ones at the bottom and no doubt more will appear soon.

The biting is a whole different post eh