BF Question - Distracted Baby

[lynn07]

Ugh. DS3 is almost 3.5 months old. We've had our ups and downs with BF so far, but the past 6-7 weeks, we'd definitely gotten more into a groove. Over the past couple of days, he's become increasingly distracted during nursing. I've taken to trying to nurse him in his room (lights off, quiet, and all that jazz), but it doesn't really seem to be helping. This also isn't ideal, because I have a 5 and 4 year old who I'm either giving the run of the house or sticking in front of the TV every time I have to nurse. I can tell that they are getting frustrated, too. DS3 latches and unlatches a million times, turns his head in every direction with my nipple in his mouth (which is killing my nips), and I'm probably spending 20 mins trying to get him to nurse for what equates to, like, 5 mins. This would be fine if he got enough, but he is not a quick nurser, so I know he's getting hungry quicker because he's not taking in a full meal. He's also started to wake an extra time at night, and our night sessions are taking 40 mins because it's the only time he eats really well, which I think is messing with my daytime supply. It's also become pretty much impossible to NIP. Is there anything I'm missing as far as trying to get this kiddo to get down to business and eat? I'll be honest, BF is not my favorite thing, so I'm not really willing to let him just reverse cycle to save our BF relationship. I also can't keep doing what we're doing, because it's really frustrating me and making me not be as good of a mom to my bigger boys because my patience is so thin

Sorry that turned into a vent, too. Any advice?

[Deleted]

DD is 3mo and DS nursed until 2yo. The distracted phase is so annoying! I found it very helpful to palm the back of their head, like a basketball. Apply a little pressure to keep their head parallel with your breast, to stop baby from shaking their head with your nipple in their mouth. I also had to start giving nursing my complete attention, otherwise baby was allll over the place. I have to concentrate on making sure DD is in the right position, her head is aligned, she's got enough areola in her mouth, and watch her nurse and counter any head whipping with pressure from the basketball hand.

[water*drop]

When DD went through the distracted phase at that age, I had to ignore all of the normal "go to a calm, quiet place" advice and instead find something interesting (the cat, the TV, people at the park, DH making faces, whatever) and put that sort of behind me so she could watch the interesting stuff while nursing. As long as whatever was behind me was more interesting than what was in front of me, she'd at least keep her head facing the right direction.

[momin2013]

I remember going through a phase like that (it actually lasted a long time for DS, sorry), where I'd sing a particular song while he was nursing, and that seemed to work pretty well to keep his attention.

[pinotgrig]

That phase sucks. Ugh. I had some success giving him a toy. It kept his hands busy and gave him something to look at. He still does this, actually, at 1 year.

[undecidedowl]

Jun 24, 2015 19:22:29 GMT -5 water*drop said:

When DD went through the distracted phase at that age, I had to ignore all of the normal "go to a calm, quiet place" advice and instead find something interesting (the cat, the TV, people at the park, DH making faces, whatever) and put that sort of behind me so she could watch the interesting stuff while nursing. As long as whatever was behind me was more interesting than what was in front of me, she'd at least keep her head facing the right direction.

Ditto this. Try to get whatever is interesting within line of sight for the baby. Sometimes I even specifically told DS1 to see if he could get DS2 to look at him. Then at least if he still popped on and off he wasn't whipping his head around. 

Also, feeding before or immediately after a nap when the baby is sleepy can help too.