How to stop comfort sucking?

[Cariad007]

12 week old DS has taken to comfort sucking for the last couple of weeks and it is starting to get both sore and exhausting. Any idea how I can stop it? He refuses to take a dummy for more than a couple of minutes. Or is it just a stage he's going through?

(Cross-posting from the feeding page as I didn't get any responses there!)

my DD did this too. She was also very reluctant to take a dummy too (she didn't end up taking a dummy until she was almost a year old!).
I'm not sure there is any way you can stop it apart from taking them off the breast when they stop feeding and you know they are only comfort sucking.

If you're happy to go down the dummy route have you tried a few different brands? My DS only liked the mam brands and it was a god send!

how do you know he's comfort sucking and not feeding?

i would just go with it tbh... nothing wrong with offering comfort although appreciate how tiring and tbh annoying it can feel!

When he's been on the boob for an hour I figure he can't be feeding. Can he? He usually falls asleep with my nipple in his mouth and stops sucking but if I try to detach him he starts to suck in his sleep or wakes up. I've ended up leaving him there for a whole evening as it's the only way I'll get some peace but I'm starting to feel quite sore.

I have two traditionally shaped dummies that he doesn't like but might try the cherry style ones to see if it makes a difference.

Is it just in the evenings he is doing this? Does what he is doing sound anything like this?

It does a bit - he has his arsenic hours in the evening and we have tried all the techniques to soothe him that are listed there but none work for him.

He also does the comfort sucking during his early morning feed. This morning he dropped off on the boob at about 7am, I unlatched him and placed him next to me in the hope of a couple hours sleep but nope, he did his usual flailing in his sleep and that woke him eventually. I tried to feed him while lying down but lately he's taken to kicking and almost punching during feeds so that was rather painful for me.

Has he ever been checked for tongue tie Cariad?

All that you have mentioned could be normal baby behaviour but it might be worth getting Lo checked

He was checked when he was born and by the visiting midwife who said he was fine. He is gaining weight as he should be - 91st percentile for weight and 98th for length so I guess he's getting what he needs.

My daughter did this until she was five months. Drove me crackers and I was quite sore all the time. She wouldn't take a dummy either, but would suck on a little finger, which I guess is more nipple-like.

According to the information in the link, and to my experience, weight gain does not exclude tongue tie. Also, the mw is unlikely to have had any training in spotting tt, especially if its a posterior tie.

Sorry, am so exhausted that I didn't realise you'd posted a link! He does have some of the symptoms listed so I might get him checked out. Would I need to go to the GP and get referred?

Unfortunately most HCPs don't have the training or skills to spot tt. Milk matters can do a virtual diagnosis service or have a look to see if there is a lactation consultant that specialises in tongue tie near to you?

You can have it done through the nhs I believe, someone on here might be able to advise you on this or I think milk matters can point you in the right direction