Baby Battling Breast (x-posted)

[JillianT]

Probably should have posted here initially... can anyone help??
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DS is almost 7 mos old, and we've had a good bfing relationship up until now. Two months ago I had to return to work (not my ideal situation, but no choice) and put him in daycare three days a week. On daycare days, I visit at lunch to nurse and play with him.

The problem is that he's started to refuse to nurse when I visit him at daycare. He fights me, cries, pops off the breast and arches his back, or just plain rejects my breast even after indicating that he's hungry. This pattern occasionally continues at home - although nights of cosleeping and breastfeeding are still going beautifully.

One of his dcps suggested he might be ready to wean (!!) or that he's just so excited/distracted that he doesn't want to nurse. Neither of those make any sense to me!

Please tell me he's not weaning at 7 months! Does anyone have suggestions for getting him settled and back into a more comfortable nursing pattern?

[RoseRed]

Having worked in an infant room of a daycare center for two years I have a couple of suggestions for you from the day care side.
At that age he is probaby really interested in the other kids and like any child he wants to do what he see's the other kids doing.
We had a little girl that started to have this problem and we used two things to help it. We allowed the mother to nurse in the office of the daycare where no other children were and it was free of distractions. If that was unavailable we would take the other children on a walk. Eventually she did give up on breastfeeding just because it is easier but doing that the mother was able to get 3 more months of breast feeding in

[samuelsmom]

I agree, I wonder if he's just so interested in what's going on around him that it's hard to focus on nursing. That's the prime age for that kind of thing! Maybe you can find a nice quiet spot to nurse him with few distractions and see if that helps!

[tappinerp]

I tend to agree as well. My ds is 8 months now and we are going through the same thing. I honestly don't think he is ready to wean as there are times when he craves that closeness...but other times, just like your babe, he arches and fusses even though he is hungry. Like the pp said, I would see if there is a quiet place at the day care center that you can go to feed him. That is really the only thing that has helped us. I have to just take ds to a quiet place free of distractions or he has a hard time focusing on the task at hand. Good luck!

[JillianT]

I really appreciate all the input! I've asked to start feeding him in a vacant classroom, so hopefully that will help. It just made my heart ache to think about my nursing relationship with him being in jeopardy.