11.5 month LO cutting WAY back on nursing...I'm concerned...please advise!

[Cartesia]

My LO is 11.5 months and for the past month there have been 2 nursing issues that concern me. I am posting here because I want to prevent premature weaning and I also want to get some sense of how LO's start decreasing their nursing WITHOUT weaning.

1. DS has been biting at almost every nursing, except when asleep, and recently he started biting then as well.

2. DS has been cutting WAY back on nursing.

The decrease in nursing started before the biting. For the biting, I have assumed it was either teething or a weird kind of nursing strike. I have gotten lots of advice & tried lots of tactics to stop the biting, but the most effective seems to be simply praising him when he is nursing well and popping him off very casually as soon as he bites.

So, he is now nursing first thing in the morning, once or twice during the day after naps, right before sleep, and 2-5 times at night. This means he sometimes goes 6-7 hours without nursing, usually during the day and occasionally at night.

I offer often, I am with him most of the time (DP is with him the rest of the time), I hang out with him topless, take bathes, wear him etc...I have also tried nursing while bouncing on a physio ball, which doesn't change anything during the day BUT it does help if he is biting me while trying to fall asleep, so that seems like one clue.

He often asks to nurse by signing, then nurses for 5 seconds, signs NURSE again happily and crawls off. He will repeat this several times but as soon as he actually gets a let down he stops. Or, he will clearly ask to nurse and then squirm and yell if I put him on my lap. I have tried nursing in other positions, having him sit up, stand, etc and he thinks it is hilarious, then bites.

BTW my supply seems fine - I work 2 days a week and pump & supply seems normal.

So anyhow, if the biting wasn't in the picture, would this be a normal rate of decrease for his age & nothing to worry about?

Any other thoughts...inspirations....???

[PJJ]

hi

I think he may be teething and hopefully it will pass soon.

Keep up pumping and maybe add a session/day if you can to keep the supply going and continue to offer.

You are doing a lot of the right things.

Take care mama!

[3girls1boy]

This actually sounds like a fair amount of nursing for a busy almost one year old. Offer to nurse before food, but otherwise I wouldn't stress too much. This might be a perfectly normal pattern for your little one, and many toddlers will wean themselves down to two or three times a day, but hold on to those most important nursings for a long time.

"Mothering Your Nursing Toddler" is a great source of information.

[Cartesia]

Yay -

He stopped biting and I've gotten used to the decreased nursing. Some days he does nurse more than others and I feel more relaxed about his patterns.

Yesterday he signed NURSE and when I took out my boob, he held his baby doll to my nipple and went "Mum mum mum mum".....

[Eligracey]

My son is 11 months and nurses upon waking, before both naps, before bed, and usually 1-2x at night, so pretty much exactly how often yours does. He does the short "nursing" sessions at other times, like if he sees me topless will grab for me, suck a few times and then run off to play. I think it's just that he likes boob so much he wants to check in and say hi to it but he's not actually hungry. Calorie needs decrease in toddlerhood so I think it's OK.

[annettemarie]

I'm going to move this to the general Breastfeeding forum since this isn't a CLW issue.