[deejie]

Nearly 8 month old DS2 is doing my head in a bit lately.

An example of what he is doing:

6am wake up.
7am offer BF. Feeds 20-30seconds, pops off, refused any more.
710am breakfast (BLW style, toast sticks, pear & banana)
915am sleep

1030 am up. Offer BF. Refused.
Happy as larry.
1130 cranking. Feeds for 20 seconds. Pops off and refuses more.
Lunch 12pm. Omelette and vegie sticks
Repeat at 1pm.
2pm sleep. Has a good feed to sleep.
Up at 330, plays happily.
BF offered 430. Feeds 20 seconds, pops off and refused.

5pm dinner. Fish, pasta spirals and vegie sticks.
630pm good BF, stories and bed.

930pm BF
130am BF
430am BF

He only has TWO good feeds through the day and 2-3 snacky 20-30second ones. I am always feeling full and uncomfortable and I am sick of feeding him heaps overnight to make up for it! He doesn't actually eat a lot of solids, probably a total of 3 tablespoons each day.

I feed him in the quiet and dark and he is just not interested. I try when he has things to watch, he is not interested.

Does anyone have any tips on how I can get him feeding properly through the day? My boobs are about to explode. Today he fed at 430am and then no more (snacky feed at 11) and it is 1:30pm....

Argh.

[lucky 2]

http://kellymom.com/bf/normal/reverse-cycling/
https://www.breastfeeding.asn.au/bfinfo/refusal.html
I'm not sure what to say to help but I know how stressful it can be.
But it also crossed my mind he might feeling a bit off, ie a virus or teething. But if it has been going on for a while its probably behavioural, distractible, reverse cycling.
You may have read the links above (esp the ABA one) but they might have some tips.
Catching him before he has woken up?
He is probably getting enough milk but you are the one who is stressed and suffering!
Could you increase his solids? Express a bit of milk if uncomfortable, add some milk to food?
I bet you know all this.
How to get him to feed? Tricky one. I think you are doing the right things trying to coax him to feed.
? holding and walking.
Anyway, probably not much help but I thought your topic tooked a bit lonely . Good luck!

[stardust81]

My 6.5 month old DS is very similar! He is just too interested in what else is going on (especially watching his big brother running around) than having a proper breast feed during the day, and he is not yet having very much solids either.

Really the only thing I have found that helps is to feed him when he is sleepy. Could you possibly feed him again before his morning nap? I actually do his feeds in two halves so for example I start the feed half an hour before his nap then do nappy etc and then feed him again immediately before I put him down. I have the added issue that i can't let him fall asleep whilst feeding as he has had some really bad sleep issues from when we used to do that but he needs to be at least sleepy or won't feed well at all.

Sorry, not much help, but I feel your pain!

[Franny Glass]

I feel your pain too! DD is only 4 months and not on solids yet, so its a little different but we have similar issues in that she hardly feeds during the day and then from 4pm onwards it's all guns blazing (and through the night). It's a new thing with her and it seems to be related to distractability. I've just got my fingers crossed it's a phase and I hope your DS's is also.

As for tips, I'm sure you've tried everything but I find a midday bath with me in the tub helps to get her interested.

Good luck

[nikki44]

I feel for you! My 7 month old DD is often still feeding that much at night. Some days she feeds really well but just as often she will go 6 hours without a feed during the day and there's is no way I can even coax her to the breast. Sometimes she may start feeding but then if there is even just a small distraction that's it, feed over. It's frustrating but I have come to realise there is just nothing I can do to get her to feed more than she is interested in. I have been trying to stretch DD out at night to make her hungrier in the day, eg. Not feed her unless it has been 4 hours rather than 3, but that's easier said than done!

I don't really have anything to offer to help sorry, just wanted to say we're in the same boat and I hope it gets better for you soon.

Good luck!

[bettymm]

My 7.5 mth old DD is dong a similiar thing...and i remember my older daughter went through this stage too..but she went on to feed til 18 months so im not too concerned

In my babies case it seems to coincide with them just being total sticky beaks and not wanting to "concentrate" on the feed so to speak when there is other things happening. the only decent Breastfeeds i can get into her is when she is really sleepy, just before her nap, i take her into her quiet dark room and she will have a good feed. She does this twice a day (only naps twice now) and thenv once before bed and about 2 overnight usually. That combined with 3 meals of solids and some water through the day seems to be enough

If he is gaining weight, doing lots of wees, decent poos id say he is just getting all he needs from those over night ones?

Have you tried offering the breastfeed before his morning nap instead of first thing? My DD often wants to just get up and going first thing and refuses the breastfeed but will take it AFTER her breakfast and bfore morning nap.

Good luck

This post has been edited by bettymm: 05/08/2012, 08:45 PM

[Ehill]

I agree with the above poster about going straight into breaky. That is what I do and then do a bfeed about an hr later before the nap.

[Tesseract]

DD also did this sort thing and it went on for months and months, I feel your pain! However we finally came out the other side and now if she wants to feed she will feed, regardless of what else is going on.

Is there any reason you don't offer as soon as he wakes up? I find DD is pretty cranky first thing in the morning and a feed and snuggle in my bed is just what she needs. I keep it dark and try in vain to catch a few more zzzs. That, or as the PPs have said you could do breakfast straight away and he may be interested in the breast before his morning sleep.

Apart from the darkened room and catching her when she's sleepy, I also gave her something small to play with while she was feeding. A rubber ducky or something like that. This way she was still 'occupied'. Now she "reads" books while on the breast, it's quite a sight to see.

Another thing I would do, and it sounds terrible, but if she ever got hurt (bumped her head for example) and was crying about it, I would straight away stick a boob in her face. She would take it because comfort is exactly what she needed right then, suck for a bit and then once the let down came she was like "oh well since I'm here".

I have also been known to walk around topless and breastfeed her toys, which makes her jealous! She throws the toy off and gets on herself, hilarity. But I'm not sure if he would respond to that as he's still young and probably hasn't reached that point developmentally lol. Topless is good though, they sometimes can't help themselves when its right there.

It is such a pain, especially with the night wakings. You have my sympathy!