baby fighting feeding?

[larzanna]

Hi, i have a 3.5 month old DS. The last week or so, he has been really fussy at the breast. Like back arching, crying ect....its making BF in public really hard since my whole boob is out for the world to see with him on/off/on/off.
Is there any reason that comes to mind as to why? its the same at home too, so i don't think its a distraction issue...although thats a seperate problem too.
I feel like i have plenty of milk supply, and nothing else has changed.

I am sorta wondering if i am trying to feed him too often and thats pissing him off? I just cannot tell when he is hungry (since he is high needs and is fussy and hard to entertain ect..)
At first (birth-10 weeks or so) he would head butt me if he wanted to eat, but now he does not do this anymore, but i don't think he is to the point where he grabs at my shirt yet.
How often does a baby his age even eat? I sorta just "top him off" before i leave the house, or around the 2/2.5 hour mark.

Sigghhhh, any thoughts? I asked at the LLL meeting and no one had any thoughts.

Thanks
-L

[2goingon2]

My six month old does this. I take it to mean that he either doesn't want to eat or comfort suck or he's so tired he's fighting sleep. I sit him up and we find something else to do and then go back to nursing. I tell ya...he's getting pretty persnickity about it too because sometimes he will "tell" me he's not ready to nurse for a good hour or so. I just keep trying and he eventually gives up and falls asleep. I'm curious about what other mamas have to say. I don't remember my other three doing it quite as much as this little guy.

[CookAMH]

I don't have too much to offer you but my DS is 3.5 mo too and he does that when he's NOT hungry and I lay him down to eat. He yells pretty good because he's just not hungry and doesn't want to eat. He occasionally nurses to suck but mostly just for food. He also fights it pretty good and gets pretty worked up if he's really tired and also hungry but too tired to work to eat (at least that is what I've been figuring out cuz he'll take a bottle in that situation). He eats about every 2-2.5 hours during the day and goes longer at night. They say breastmilk is digested in 1.5 hours. How often are you offering the breast?

Many say on here to not watch the clock and I partially agree - I need to be aware of the time if his routine gets off or out of order and it's too soon to offer food or know how long it's been to help understand his reactions. He sucks his hands when he's hungry, when he's tired, and when he's curious about them, so I don't have many good physical clues at all.

[docta]

I had a similar problem with my daughter (now 4 mos). I eventually figured out why she would be screaming at the breast...she is very particular about how she is fed. I realized (after trial & error) that she suddenly decided that she only wanted to be fed in particular positions. No more football hold (probably because of heavy letdown/choking/sputtering), or laying across my lap (not sure why), she only wanted to be fed in sidelying position . If she was screaming & popping off the breast & I was at home & I lay down, she would instantly calm down and nurse contentedly. This is not so helpful in public of course, unless we are at a park. In public, also, if i was uncomfortable & not relaxed, she would feel that and react...resulting in screaming & making me more unrelaxed and so on--I ended up feeding her in my car a lot to prevent this. Especially now that i realize that she cries because she want us to lie down and we can't.
When at home, although I often realize that at times she would rather be fed sidelying, I make a point of feeding her across my lap during the daytime so that she won't totally reject feeding while I'm sitting. So maybe your son only wants to be fed in a particular position?

[GoGoGirl]

Teething! That's exactly what DD did for a few weeks before she got her first two teeth. She's been doing it again, so I'm thinking we'll see some teeth pretty soon. I've read that teething can make sucking painful for babies, so that can be why they're fighting at the breast.

It makes NIP really hard, doesn't it? At this point, the only way my babe will nurse (unless she's asleep) is laying on her back, with me on all fours over her, dangling my boob into her mouth, with my butt way up in the air. How convenient! So that's what we did today, on the floor of a store...Luckily it was a baby carrier store, so no one thought I was crazy.

[larzanna]

Hmmmm maybe teething i guess....he has been super drooley for a few weeks, but i just guessed that it was becasue he found his hands and slimes all over them.
I also think that i am going to wait longer between feeding....that is, offer if he is telling me (somehow) that he is hungry, rather than when its easy for me (like before we go somewhere for an hour)

Thanks for some ideas.