Not sure what's going on here

[Barefoot~Baker]

My ds is a little over 3 months. For the past few days, he's becoming extremely fussy with nursing. When he's hungry, he will nurse for a while, but stop before he's full.

Sometimes, he's distracted by sounds around him, then he will refuse to latch on again even when he's still hungry. When I try to continue to nurse him, he turns away from the breast and is extremely irritated! I try him on the other side, but he does the same thing.

He does this turning away thing often. He does it at night which is really frustrating and I'm so tired because he has trouble getting back to sleep now because of this. He used to comfort suck back to sleep but he doesn't comfort suck at all now.

Is it a nursing strike? Why would he feed for a while and then stop?

[bean-e]

My baby became a fussier nurser around that same age too. She would only nurse in the bedroom in the dark for a while. She is now 17 weeks, and it's still hard to get her to nurse outside of home because she is more interested in looking at the world than nursing. She can go for 6 hours without really eating if we are out. She might have a sip here and there to satisfy her thirst but her curiosity seems to be much stronger than her hunger! I wonder if your little one is beginning to take notice of his surroundings as well.

[PatioGardener]

How do you know he's stopping before he's full? I ask because some little ones get really efficient around 3 months and finish nursing much faster than they used to.

The 'pop off when distracted' thing is really annoying, isn't it. My good friend has a 4 month old who just started to do this, and she has taken to nursing her in a quiet room (for now, anyway). Her 3 year old just loves to distract baby while she's nursing!

[Barefoot~Baker]

Originally Posted by PatioGardener

How do you know he's stopping before he's full? I ask because some little ones get really efficient around 3 months and finish nursing much faster than they used to.

I guess because he is irritable and fussy now too, so I was thinking he's hungry. Oh, and also because my breasts are still kind of full.