How do I know when baby is full?

[lkmiscnet]

My 4 month old son will sometimes pop on and off my breast while nursing. He'll nurse then seems to get distracted and will smile at me and pop off and I'll continue to encourage him to nurse and he continues to pop on and off. Frequently he doesn't even get to the other side. This is typically about 2.5 - 3hours after his last feeding.

I want to be sure he learns to trust his own fullness signals so he grows up with a healthy sense of eating, and I don't want to essentially over fill him and encourage him to overeat, like our parents used to do by making us clean our plate.

So, I don't want to keep trying to get him to nurse if he's full. But, I don't know when I should stop offering my boob to him.

Linda

[MountainMamaGC]

From what I have read you cant breast feed too much. When they are full they change their suck and just comfort nurse so even if they are on your breast they are not necessarily eating.

[curious&eager]

My lo does the same, constantly poping off. I can tell though the difference between his poping off just for fun or whatever reason and his "I'm done" pop off. But, sometimes I'm not sure. When that happens, I just keep offering. He will not take it if he's really done. He'll push away or turn his head so much that I would have to turn it back to get him on and he's strong enough (3 months) to make it really hard for me to turn his head back if he's done.