Bad Habit! End feeding with Pacifier!

[gratefulma]

Hi! I have a 9 week old baby and I am honored to be a breastfeeding mama! My little guy loves to suckle! I never time our feedings or stop him from eating until he is completely ready. Sometimes after a feeding he will start bobbing his head at my breast or start grunting in between gulps. He will start fidgeting  or crying. I feel like he is full or has a bubble. I try to burp him but he seems to get more upset because he wants the breast.

If I pop a pacifier in his mouth, he immediately calms down and is soothed.

I feel like he wants to suck, but is done with the milk part!

If I do not give him the pacifier, he will pop on and off the breast and then end up spitting up SOOO much. HE is a gassy baby and spits up often, but gaining healthy.

I always thought I wouldnt use a pacifier, but he seems to really enjoy sucking. I would like to try not to use the pacifier... but I want him to be happy and satisfied after a feeding.

Has anyone experienced this ? Or can anyone give me any advice?

Thank you.

[Midwesterner04]

Babies this age are often in the process of learning how to regulate milk flow. Sometimes they are ravenous and need big gulps of milk, other times they just need to be attached to Mama for comfort. As they grow, babies figure out how to adjust their latch and suckle patterns to meet these and other needs. Your son might be in the middle of this, and the process might actually go a little more quickly without the pacifier in the equation. If it were me I probably would continue to nurse on demand, without a pacifier, while looking into possible causes of discomfort like overactive let down and/or food sensitivities--you mention that your son is spitty and gassy.  Many babies are spitty and as long as they are content it is usually a laundry problem more than a medical one, but it seems that your son may be uncomfortable? Have you looked into any possible food intolerances? Maybe cutting some of the top allergens (dairy, soy, and eggs are big ones) out of your diet might help?

[gratefulma]

Thank you for your reply!

That makes sense. I do notice sometimes he is gulping and sometimes he has tiny suckles.

I have been working on a foremilk/hindmilk imbalance because my sons poop was green. I often nurse right, right, left, left.. and now we are having yellow poops with occasional green! very exciting.

I have thought about food intolerence also. I rarely have dairy, just butter and yogurt.  When I do eat dairy... it doesn't seem to effect him negatively. maybe I will try again!

I am not sure how to stop the using the pacifier...  I will use my breast instead of pacifier but sometimes.. it seems like he is finished with the breast and I do not want to push in his face.

[crystal_buffaloe]

I don't have any advice to add, I just wanted to say that my DD did the same thing at that age (and beyond) and you described what we went through exactly. I really, really, really just wanted her to be satisfied/content after nursing and couldn't understand why she wouldn't fall asleep nursing or how she couldn't get there without the pacifier (she gained weight rapidly, or I'd have sworn she was hungry). I did end up having oversupply (lord, those green poops were the bane of my existence) which we resolved through block feeding and that seemed to help a great deal. Anyway, good luck with your breasfeeding journey!

[foreverinbluejeans]

If your baby seems to need to suck you can use the tip of your little finger. If you think you have too much milk using one breast a feeding should decrease your supply. The finger can be used sometimes when nursing is impractical or impossible. Of course you don't want to overuse and you don't want to let other people stick their fingers in your baby's mouth.