Vent & advice for 4month old DS

[CrystalCloud]

DS2 has always been easy to nurse which was wonderful because I also have another DS1 that is 18 months old. Typical toddler that loves dancing, screaming, playing and making tons of noise.

Now that DS2 is at that age where he is easily distracted, he doesn't want to nurse with me holding him. He wants me to nurse him laying down which is a bit difficult during the day since I am at SAHM with no help most days. One thing I notice is that DS2 starts screaming when I hold him "like a baby". It's like he knows I'm about to nurse him to sleep. Can this really be?

How can I help him to nurse other than laying down? Is this a phase? Please give me some insight!

I never went through this with DS1 at all. He did get distracted but nursed any which way I held him.

[mrs.t]

DS went through the same thing at 4 months...he would only nurse really well at night when there were no distractions. He reverse cycled for a while where he was barely nursing during the day. I just went with it, he was fine with getting most of his calories at night, and it was really easy to get him to nurse when he was sleepy. I started co-sleeping full time when he was going through this, where I used to only co-sleep for part of the night. Also, nursing right after he would wake up from a nap helped a lot because he didn't have time to be distracted yet.

What worked for me during the day was to take him into our bedroom where there were very few distractions. He would usually only nurse for 3-4 minutes but at least he was getting something. Also, I would sometimes face him toward the window so he could look out while nursing. That seemed to distract him just enough so that he would stop complaining and realize he was hungry. He was really agitated, though...he would whine and arch away from me as soon as I picked him up and put him anywhere near my breast.

It took a few weeks, but eventually he went back to his typical nursing habits. It will pass, it's just something about that age...

[Blessed1]

Wow, same thing is going on with my 4month old too. She is so distracted these days and literally turns away from my boob when I am about to nurse her. I tried covering her up with a cover so she wouldn't be distracted but she grabbed, pulled and tugged at the cover like crazy! lol Now when I have company visiting, I have to go up to our bedroom to nurse because she won't eat otherwise. I hope this is a stage!

[OkiMom]

Both of mine went through the same thing. Im pretty sure they are just active and curious about the world around them so they dont' want to stop looking around and seeing whats around. With my first I would sit with her on my lap sitting up (kind of straddling me) and she would nurse like that. Second liked to nurse in the carrier (at that age I think it was the Beco that was her fav. I don't remember exactly).
DD2 got better around 5 months when she mastered sitting up by herself and army crawling so she could go around to look at things. My oldest wasn't until 6ish months when she was crawling well. Then they both went through a time where all it seemed they wanted to do was nurse

[CrystalCloud]

Thanks ladies!!! I straddled DS like OkiMom and it worked for a few minutes. We did just get through that phase of constantly wanting to nurse to this so I've had a bit of a hard time with it.

[somegirl99]

So glad to see I'm not the only one, hope it gets better soon!

[Blessed1]

http://www.kellymom.com/parenting/sleep/4mo-sleep.html

I just read this about the constant distraction of a 4month old...very interesting.    I was wondering why my LO was waking more at night.