Do you like nursing your older infant?

[Rivka5]

My baby is 7 months old. Everyone told me that even if nursing is hard at the beginning (it wasn't, at least not with this baby), once you get past a certain point it's all great and easy from there on out. I certainly get that impression here on MDC.

Well, nursing is not that much fun for me these days. Colin scratches, pinches, and twists my breast. He hooks his leg over my arm and pulls it down. He pulls off to look around and then latches back on and then pulls off to look around and then latches back on and so on until my nipple is sore.

I'm committed. I'm not looking for an excuse to wean, or anything, although I am looking forward to him getting more of his calories from solid food. I'm just not feeling the breastfeeding love. Am I the only one?

[MountainMamaGC]

BFing has its bad moments too doesnt it. Its ok to lovingly guide your child to not do these behaviours. When my DD has bad nursing manners I take her off the breast and try again 10-15 min later. I would warn her first. I would tell her NO pinching or biting and if she didnt stop i would take her off the breast immediately.

[lifeguard]

I have the pinching, poking, prodding, kicking thing going on over here too. Plain & simple I don't really tolerate it. If he wants to nurse he will do so with his hands to himself. I move his hand & hold it still & if he continues I put him down for a little bit. I find when he really is hungry/sleepy he nurses nicely & it's pleasant for both of us.

He can be really sneaky with the pinching though so I often hold his hand gently throughout.

[SubliminalDarkness]

No, not really. Never have. Still don't. Granted, we had a lot of issues, but even so.... No, it's not been something I enjoyed.

[Jemmind]

I don't really like Bfing 90% of the time. I'd feel too guilty to stop though, I want to make it at least a year with this baby.

[MeepyCat]

You're definitely not the only one. This stage drove me crazy when DS was in it. I totally got the breast feeding love on the occasions when he snuggled up, stayed more or less still in my arms, and then fell sweetly asleep. Less so when he crawled my rib cage, pinched, and tried to do headstands with my nipple in his mouth.

[Super~Single~Mama]

That stage passes!! Really, truly, it passes! Just savor the moments when he's half asleep and cuddly and snuggly nursing. My son did that and it drove me NUTS, but now he's my snuggly sweet nurser again and I love it again.

[paulamc]

DS did some of that around that age and I remember it bothering me. But now at 11.5 months, I can't remember the last time he did something annoying. Hang in there - I'll bet it improves for you in the next couple of months. In answer to your question, I do enjoy breastfeeding myself, especially when he settles down to it. These days he's often too busy exploring.

[tuffykenwell]

My favorite nursing age is around the one year mark. Even though we are still nursing quite a bit at this point most of the highly irritating habits (latch on latch off latch on latch off...think Karate Kid) have started to go away....and when they do surface at one I feel better about putting the child down and explaining if they can't decide whether to explore or nurse right now then I was making the choice for them LOL....

Plus I feel less pressure as they age. I can go out for a few hours without worrying that DH will have to deal with a suddenly hungry infant without me because generally by about 14 months or so he has a couple of non nursing options (and all of my kids have been fairly "food resistant" to a later than average age).

I love nursing toddlers. Nursing newborns is exhausting at times but very sweet and nursing 6-12 month olds is my least favorite age quite frankly because the are so curious at that age and getting them to hunker down and nurse properly for even a few minutes at a time is nearly impossible!

Steph

[Llyra]

I liked nursing from birth until about 7 months. Then we went through a rough phase, with the biting and the wiggling and the popping on and off to look around the room. Then things settled down around 11 months and it got fun again. I loved early toddlerhood the best, mostly because it's so endearing and adorable when they start being able to come to you and ask when they want to nurse.