Crazy distracted 7 1/2 month old!!!

[momofadella]

Ugh.  My 7 1/2 month old daughter is super distractable lately.  She is learning how to crawl and is so busy during the day.  She has almost stopped nursing through the day.  She's taken to waking every 1 1/2 - 2 hours to nurse at night.  I know she's getting enough because I've been keeping track of wet diapers.  Its still hard when I feel rejected most times when I offer to nurse her during the day; she just pushes me away.  I've gotten worked up about this and it's caused me some anxiety.  I really hope it's just a phase and passes soon.  I can't help but think that she doesn't like to nurse with me.  :-(   She hasn't even had solids yet, so I know she still NEEDS to nurse.  Any suggestions or pointers?  I'd love to hear some encouraging stories about some distractable babies that went on to be nurse-aholics!  ;-)  

[mamazee]

One of my kids did go through a period of time where she was easily distracted and didn't want to stop moving to nurse. And it was temporary, but OTOH she was never as much of a "nurseaholic" all around as the other one either.

I would try taking her into bed to nurse during the day and lying down with her. She'd nurse then, in a dark quiet room, but she had no interest in nursing if there was something interesting going on wherever I was.

Good luck!

[GER611]

I'm going through the same thing. My LO will be 8 months on the 11th. She is easily distracted by day and she tries to nurse standing up and crawling all over me. I agree with previous poster about trying to nurse in bed..I've tried this. It's still difficult to get her settled down, but dark room and in bed works a bit better. Ours is also nursing frequently during the night. I do get the sense she is taking in most of her calories at night. Hang in there! Hopefully they are just excited about all the new things they can do and will get over it soon. 

[erigeron]

My daughter is the same age and has been distracted for months now. It's hard to get her to nurse during the day, but she nurses great at night. I don't really know what to do about it, but I would like to note that the June 2011 DDC migrated over to Facebook, and we recently had a thread in which almost everybody said that their nursing sessions now lasted 5 minutes or less.

[Hymanroth]

My son is sooooooo distracted lately too. It happens just during the day and only when we are not at home ... he will just not be interested for more than 30 seconds in nursing. 

He loves nursing while rocking in a rocking chair and laying down side lying ... 

[LindyGirl]

Originally Posted by mamazee 

One of my kids did go through a period of time where she was easily distracted and didn't want to stop moving to nurse. And it was temporary, but OTOH she was never as much of a "nurseaholic" all around as the other one either.

I would try taking her into bed to nurse during the day and lying down with her. She'd nurse then, in a dark quiet room, but she had no interest in nursing if there was something interesting going on wherever I was.

Good luck!

I was going to suggest the same thing. The only thing that worked for me with all of my kids is a quiet, dark room, preferably laying down.  It's REALLY common, so do not take it personally. :)