Breastfeeding beyond the newborn stage

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Hi all

I have a lovely 16 week old who over the last few weeks has become a little monkey in terms of feeding him.

He's a big boy and has doubled his birth weight, is on the 95th centile, so all good from that point of view. He's always been a bouncy, roly-poly baby but feeding him now is a session of being thumped repeatedly by his free arm, kicked by his thrashing legs, and trying to keep him still long enough to actually get anything into him. He constantly bobs on and off, pulls my nipple when he's turning his head, and will only feed for a few minutes before he's fighting to get away. And that's in a quiet room at home with nothing happening!

Anyone got any advice on continuing to breastfeed as they get bigger?! Do those fiddle necklaces actually do anything to keep them focused on feeding / stop them using you as a punch-bag and climbing frame?!

Thanks!

Infuriating isn’t it?! I pinion the flailing arm & tuck the kicky legs under my arm, which doesn’t prevent the odd surprisingly accurate kick getting through & knocking things flying.

I only had the real pulling on the nipple when I had a blocked duct / milk blister so the flow wasn’t as fast as she was used to, altho it’s started again lately, but I think she’s doing a tooth.

Only thing I can suggest is, it’s s phase & he’ll probably stop doing it soon?

I know that by that age both of mine only needed to feed for 3-4 mins a time, I was surprised with the first but the second then followed suit. I think they just get more efficient. If he's a good weight I would just stop fighting with him, if he starts messing about after a couple of minutes I would think he was done and let him go play.

My DD suddenly dropped her feeds to under 5 minutes around that age - as PP said, I think they just get more efficient, because she's never increased her feeding time again and hasn't starved 🤷‍♀️ it's a tricky age for feeding because they're suddenly so interested in the world around them, but it does pass. A necklace is worth a try - I used one when she was around 7 months to stop her scratching my chest 😒

Yes this is a frustrating stage - very distractable but still reliant on milk! It's easier when they get bigger as you know they can take it or leave it.

Once my baby was bigger I used to feed him sitting straddled on one of my legs rather than trying to make him lie down - perhaps that would help? I can't remember how old he was.

I found feeding in a dark room helped a lot. A silent dark room. That way there is no distraction. Plus feel pretty confident to say 'no don't hurt mummy' or 'you're hitting mummy and that hurts, if you carry on we'll stop'. Then put him down. Obviously you can then try again after a few minutes if he does seem to want it.

Thanks all! Will try some of the things here. I don't think it's that he's done in a few mins now - he'll often be rooting again a few mins later. The only time he feeds well is at night - no wonder we're still up for 3+ night feeds!

Between this, a milk blister and blocked duct last week, and having to go dairy free, I've rather fallen out of love with breastfeeding at the moment!

my ds is 7.5 months. his hands have a new interest every month. currently he likes to stick his fingers in my mouth and pull my lip and teeth or twiddle my nipple. intend to hold his hand when he is too grabby and pin his legs behind me with my arm.
the fiddle necklaces do help though but I have found his interest in them wavers so sometimes they are great other times they just don't interest him.

I agree try sitting him on your lap, straddling a leg. Mine preferred it at that age

DS (23 weeks) likes to try and pull my hair and generally flails. I've found it's better when he's ready to nap/sleep, much calmer, so I'm trying to resist offering too early. If he's being agitated giving him a blanket to pull at can help, and sometimes holding his hand.

I remember that phase well (and will probably have to do it again in 4 weeks time with ds2). It is just a phase - ableit a very annoying one.

I found that if you can distract him when he's doing on/off until he's more hungry it's worth while. At 4 months they don't need the constant feeding if a newborn so you can put them off for a while.

With the hitting; if he's hitting your boob then it's an instinctive thing that increases your let-down, the same with nipple tweaking etc. It's unlikely that you will be able to stop him or train him out of it but you can block his hand from reaching your boob - put your arm in the way. Agree with pp if it's really bad stop the feed for a bit, there's not much point explaining it to a 4mo but it might make you feel better about it and I do use this with my toddler when he's boob squeezing (ow!)