7 mo nursing infrequently during the day

[red and lulu]

my dd doesn't seem to be nursing very often during the day.... like today, she probably nursed around 6 or 7 in bed, then around 11, and then for 2 seconds at 3, and another 2 seconds around 6. it seems like if i didn't keep trying to offer it, she wouldn't nurse at all. she nurses a lot at night, and we've started introducing solids very slowly and are doing blw so she's not ingesting a whole lot....

is it normal for babies around this age to go for such long stretches during the day w/o eating? will it affect my supply? is there maybe something wrong?

[maptome]

DD does the exact same thing. She's 6.5 months. She only nurses down for her two naps during the day and when she goes to bed at night. I've tried nursing her in all kinds of environments and positions. It's like she can't eat when she's awake. When she gets really fussy, I'll initiate a nursing and she'll latch, unlatch, push me away screaming like I'm trying to poison her. Switch sides. Repeat that cycle over and over until she stops latching. Then she's fine, no longer fussy/hungry.

This has been going on since she was about 3 months old. I've never felt as if I don't have enough milk for her bc she eats at night to keep up my supply. Solids aren't a factor in my situation.

It's frustrating.

[Altair]

Yes, normal, and yes frustrating! Dark rooms with no distractions and nursing laying down helped us during that stage. I also push cluster feeding a lot before bed to try to get some sleep at night!

[curious&eager]

I got exhausted because of this and became an not pleasant mommy. He would not eat during the day and would eat every 1.5 hours at night. Nursing in bed in a dim room helped, but not a lot.

What I had to do out of sanity was have dad comfort the baby during the night and try to get him back to sleep without eating. Surprisingly, my little baby (7m) did not cry much with this arrangement and for the next two nights when 7.25 hours without waking up.

Then (now) he has a cold and I'm feeding him more often when he wakes up to make sure he's getting all he needs, but it's still better, every 4 hours as opposed to two.

So with this arrangement, with dad comforting during the night and us trying not to feed the baby too much at night, my LO is eating well and happily during the day and we both sleep much better at night. He seems to be in a better mood now that he's not waking up all night to eat.

[claddaghmom]

Yeah, DD did this around the same age. They are too busy exploring.

I didn't want to reverse cycle so we had quiet time/nursing in the evening.

[LizanaMama]

Sounds similar to my 8 mo old since we have started introducing solids (slowly as well) over the past couple of weeks. He will nurse more frequently at night and in the early morning...even following his evening "meal" of solids. He is active during the day and will nurse briefly (I believe due to thirst) as you also described. I have noticed an huge increase in my supply starting around 9pm when he prefers to eat his larger meals. Trust your body and your baby, I believe both will make necessary adjustments.