Baby pulling away

[lovepiggie]

How do I stop my baby from pulling away while nursing? He stays latched on the breast, but pulls away his head and looks around. Aside from keeping my hand on the back of his head the entire time, what can I do to stop him? As it is, I keep one hand on his neck to try and keep him close and the other hand on my boob so I can kind of follow him when he moves (so it doesn't hurt)

[pbjmama]

depending on the age of your baby this is a normal phase. too busy/easily distracted to nurse. my suggestion is to get in a quiet corner when it is time for nursing.

[lovepiggie]

Originally Posted by pbjmama

depending on the age of your baby this is a normal phase. too busy/easily distracted to nurse. my suggestion is to get in a quiet corner when it is time for nursing.

He's five weeks old.

I try and keep it quiet while I nurse, but he nurses quite often, and for a really long time, and I get bored... And because he moves around so much, I can't read a book, so I often watch TV with the volume down low.

[pbjmama]

at 5 weeks it probably isn't that he is distracted. do you think you could have overactive/strong let down?
http://www.kellymom.com/bf/supply/fast-letdown.html

[Llyra]

If he's pulling away right as the milk lets down, it may be that the flow comes too fast for him and he's trying to slow it down.

If he's pulling away later in the feed, when the flow has slowed, it may be that he's lost interest now that the milk is coming slower.

In the first case, you may want to look at kellymom.com about overactive letdown. If the second case, switching sides, even if you're already used the first breast, can sometimes elicit another letdown of milk and keep baby interested. If he's doing it very late in a feed, and it seems like he's really genuinely finished, you could just end the feed.

How is his weight gain? Is he pooping multiple times in a day, with nice yellow or yellowish-orange poops? If he's not gaining and pooping, I would look for a good lactation consultant or LLL leader to help you-- he may not be transferring enough milk.

If he's gaining and pooping well, I would treat it as an ineffective habit, and help him unlearn it. What I would do is immediately unlatch him when he pulls away, and then re-latch him correctly. If he refuses to re-latch, he may just be finished. If you consistently insist on a good deep open-mouthed latch, he should very quickly figure it out. If you tolerate a lousy latch, it can lead to sore nipples, a compromised milk supply, and poor weight gain.

Some babies do this when they want to comfort suck and don't want any milk, but the milk keeps coming, so they use a shallow latch to be able to suck without getting milk. If baby has just had a good long feed, and you feel like baby really just wants the comfort, and your nipples have had it, you can probably safely offer a finger to suck, or even (cringing, because I know some will disagree...) a pacifier.

I would definitely NOT offer a paci to a baby that's not gaining weight well, though.

[hezasan]

For how long and frequently does your baby nurse? I had the same problem, nursing all day and I had to entertain myself somehow.
My son did the same pulling thing, it didn't seem to me like he was looking around though, he would usually do it after a letdown ended. My lac thought it was because he was done, but I tried ending the session at that point (especially if it was the 2nd side) and it seemed like he got a bit dehydrated and my milk supply started to dwindle a bit. We just had him treated for tongue tie this week, he seems to have more effective (and shorter) feeding sessions. Now he occasionally pulls away, but it does seem as though he's looking around rather than trying to get more milk. I've started to put a receiving blanket over his head when he does that, it seems to help so far. A nursing cover would work I'm sure (we still havent' got one!)
If it isn't just simply being distracted, I would check into reasons he might not be getting the milk out as well or, as mentioned above, getting too much all at once! Good luck!

[lovepiggie]

Thank you for all the suggestions!

I'm pretty sure I have an overactive letdown. I checked out the kellymom website and he also clamps down while nursing and often coughs and spits up a bit while on the boob. But I don't think that's why he's doing it, since he does it at the end of a feed and not so uch at the beginning...

He usually nurses about eight times a day for half an hour on each side, so I think he might also be comfort nursing. Since he's been gaining weight well and has plenty of wet and dirty diapers, I'm going to try breaking his latch when he starts pulling away and just cuddling with him and maybe letting him suck on a finger (he hates his pacifier)

Thanks again!

[hezasan]

Sounds like a good plan. From my experience, I would suggest watching his poos and wets carefully just to make sure he's getting enough. When I did this with my son, as I mentioned above, he wet less (once I checked his diaper in the middle of the night after like 5 hours and it was dry, if you can imagine!) and his poos decreased, and I think his fontanel was just a tiny bit sunken. If that stuff starts happening, I'd start looking for another solution. But I think in most cases that you describe, the baby is done and ending the session is fine.