[margaritamama]

Hi. I just discovered this discussion board. Wow--there seems to be a wealth of information here about breastfeeding-- maybe you have some suggestions for me too.

I am a stay at home mom with a six month old boy. For the first 4-5mo I struggled with low milk supply and even had to supplement with formula (believe me I didn't want to! but after seeing the LC and trying everything I had no choice) I received acupuncture and regular chiropractic adjustments and my milk supply has finally increased so that he doesn't seem to need the supplement anymore.

Also my son has been teething since 3 mo old. Can you believe he now has 5 teeth! This has caused him some considerable discomfort including an ear inflammation/infection (his doctor says it has cleared up now). And he is still drooling so there must be more coming!

Anyway, he has always had very intense breastfeeding needs. Sometimes have been more intense than others--nursing all night long or all day long while other times I have been able to get sleep (a 4-5hour stretch!) and attend moms' group or baby class without problem (actually do something besides breastfeed all day!). (I think he might be considered a high need baby since he wants to be held a lot too.)

Lately, he does his usual nursing/sleepy signal (rubbing his head back and forth across my chest) and when I put him across my lap to nurse him he gets mad (and boy does this little guy have a temper!) so I try to distract him and play with him but the cycle eventually repeats! I wondered if he was tired of being in our bedroom (I have been nursing him almost exclusively sitting up on our bed lately --it is the most comfortable for those marathon nursing sessions and since most of the time he won't let me move him off of me once he falls asleep) and tried going elsewhere to nurse but he still got mad! Finally I put him in his sling and walked around the house and when I took him out he nursed to sleep. Any ideas or suggestions why? or what I could do differently?

The other thing he does is when he gets hungry and there are other people present at home or in public (sometimes even my husband!) he will nurse a few minutes and then unlatch and look around. Minutes later he is signalling again (usually a stronger signal like whining) and I will try to nurse him again and then (if I can get him to latch on again--sometimes I can't) he willl unlatch himself again. This cycle continues until he gets mad (with screaming!) and finally nurses or until I remove him to a more private place if it is possible. Any ideas or suggestions?

Finally, I have some food intolerances (wheat and dairy) and because of this his doctor wanted me to wait 6 mo to introduce solids. Well we are at the 6 mo mark now and I first tried bananas but by day three he was noticeably more gassy and had swollen eyes so I of course stopped giving them to him. Anyway, my son's doctor is on vacation and the doctor covering for her said to just try another food on the list (I have a list of foods he can try after 6 mo - (applesauce,pearsauce,avocados....). This sounds reasonable except I remember his doctor said that he could exclusively breastfeed for 9 mo and I am starting to wonder if I shouldn't wait for 9 months. But She encouraged me to start now (at 6 mo)-- he would be more satisfied if he started eating solids (maybe even sleep better, nurse less?) plus he is very interested always reaching and grabbng at my food. (When I started with bananas he ate a whole half banana in one sitting!) But now I am wondering if the reason for this allergy is the formula that he drank. Do you think that his intestines is mature enough for solid food even though I supplemented with formula? I guess I just didn't expect a reaction when I waited 6 months and certainly not to the first food I tried. Does anyone have any similar experiences? Do you think I should just wait 9 months and start then?

Thanks!

 

[cjr]

I'm no expert as I am just beginning this experience, but I have read in many places that you can wait until 9 months if you are ebf'ing. I have also read and been told by my doc that it's good to wait until baby shows a real interest in food. He's getting all he needs from you so I would'nt worry about solids yet.

You may want to try a nursing necklace or something you can wear and let him play with and focus on while nursing. I have heard of lots of babies who get distracted as they get older. With my son, I am teaching him how to nurse (he's almost 4 months old) and I can't hold him. He hates to be confined and forced into a position. Maybe your little guy is hitting an "I want to be free" phase. I have found that the only way I can get ds to nurse is by straddling over top of him. If he fusses it's only for a moment and then he nurses fine. However, if I hold him accross my lap then he gets very upset and won't nurse at all. Sometimes I can get him to nurse while laying with him facing me, but usually only in the morning when he's sleepy and wants to be held close. He likes to cuddle most times, just not when I nurse him.

I wanted to ask if the chiropractor helped your production?

 

[Momtwice]

Hi. I answered on your other thread.

Welcome!

 

[margaritamama]

Quote:

Originally Posted by cjr I'm no expert as I am just beginning this experience, but I have read in many places that you can wait until 9 months if you are ebf'ing. ...You may want to try a nursing necklace or something you can wear and let him play with and focus on while nursing. I have heard of lots of babies who get distracted as they get older. With my son...He likes to cuddle most times, just not when I nurse him. I wanted to ask if the chiropractor helped your production?

Thanks for your advice. It is good to know that my ds isn't the only one like this.

I can't be certain what it was that helped my supply increase-- probably both the acupuncture and chiropractic treatments helped. I will tell you my story :

I started going to the chiropractor for my chronic neck pain and continued through my pregnancy. When ds was born I didn't have any treatment for two months and when I finally started going again my chiropractor couldn't believe how misaligned my back was (and continued to be each week). So it is possible I had some nerve interference. Soon after I started those treatments, I started acupuncture. My practitioner treated both my neck pain and my low milk supply. I will say that my neck has never felt better. The combonation really did wonders. When my milk supply finally increased I believed it was the acupuncture. But both my chiropractor and my acupuncture practitioner couldn't dismiss the chiropractic treatments as a possible cause.

 

[wombat]

I just wanted to add that a nursing necklace at that age really helped. dd was one to always be looking around at anything that moved or made noise and she'd be off and on, off and on. I got a necklace from a mom on this board (Konur's mom) - it had big colored animal beads on it and dd loved to play with them.

And do you know about www.kellymom.com. It's another wonderful site full of BF info. Here's an article on nursing the distractible baby:
http://www.kellymom.com/babyconcerns...ible-baby.html