Have you ever tried to nurse a distracted baby?
An inquisitive baby often times proves to be a distracted baby while nursing around other people or new environments. Sadly, I didn’t understand the importance of being in private to nurse a distracted baby with my first child eighteen years ago.
Nursing My First Distracted Baby
When she was eight months old, we were visiting our family four hundred miles away, and I tried desperately to get my daughter to nurse, as usual. After a full day of trying, I became engorged and was in a lot of pain, all because she was more interested in the things going on around her than in nursing. She would literally latch on and get the milk flowing and then swing her head around to see what she missed.
I wanted to nurse her until she was one year old, but being the first on either side of the family to attempt such a feat and no other friends that were doing this, I was quickly discouraged.
I was in pain, physically and emotionally, as the joy of nursing was taken away suddenly. The only voices I was hearing were ‘she doesn’t want it anymore’, ‘she is ready to eat like other babies her age’ and ‘it is time to let her grow up.’
I caved into the words that were surrounding me, along with the refusal of my distracted baby, but everything inside me was crying for just one more nursing time with my sweet baby girl. After my daughter, I gave birth to two sons, who loved nursing and were content to keep nursing even if it seemed like the world was in war around us. They just didn’t care about anything but nursing. I was able to nurse my second child to his first birthday and my third child to his second.
Nursing My Next Distracted Baby
Then I had my fourth child and my second inquisitive baby.
This baby was the first baby that I used a cover while nursing in the hopes of being successful in nursing, and not allowing distraction to win again. If our family was quiet during nursing, it would work, however if there was any laughter or even talking, his arm would throw up the cover and he would attempt to turn while nursing. This is the worse kind of distraction for a mother…a child who demands both!
Knowing that I had accomplished nursing with my last two babies longer, I was determined that I was going to find a solution to nurse my distracted baby. My goal was to nurse him until his second birthday and I needed to find solutions to help both of us reach that goal.
Tips to Nurse A Distracted Baby
Here are the steps I used to successfully nurse a distracted baby until his second birthday:
- Use a cover to block out some of the distraction
- Develop a routine in nursing: using the same chair, in the same room and doing the same thing leading up to the nursing session. For us, that meant that I nursed in my bed in the morning, in a rocking chair next to his crib at nap and bedtime. Other nursing, while at home with the other children, worked with knowing that distractions will happen, but being patient and consistent was worth the effort in reaching our nursing goal.
- Nurse before and after company comes, avoiding the stress of attempting this would only exasperate me and frustrate him.
- Train for a bottle or cup, with either breast milk or water for those times when nursing isn’t possible for the distracted child, but nutrition is needed.
Celebrate Your Accomplishment!
In the end, to successfully nurse a distracting baby can be very overwhelming, especially if you go out of the house a lot or have a lot of company.
Finding ways to create a less distracting environment for nursing time will prove to be the best step to successfully nursing a distracting baby. Once you find a routine that proves to be less distracting, stick with it and you will be successful more and more.
What are some ways that you have been able to successfully nurse your distracted baby?
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Dollie is a Christian wife to her heart-throb of 20+ years, homeschooling four blessings, with one graduated. She blogs about her passions from a Christian heart on everything home at Teachers of Good Things. You can engage with Dollie on Facebook, Twitter and Pinterest.
Fortunately, I haven’t had any huge issues with my son nursing while distracted. I mean, yes, he gets distracted and will sometimes stop and look around if we’re in public or there are people (even his dad) in the room, but he’ll eventually go back to nursing and seem to fill up enough.
He did fall asleep a lot at the breast for the first two months, so nursing was a 45-60 minute process usually. I used to pump and bring a bottle for when we were in public, and that made nursing overall easier.
My kids were all distractable in that way too. By a certain age they all wanted to know what was going on and didn’t want to miss anything. But I never had any kids that were distractable to the point that they would stop nursing… they’d just pull the nursing cover off so they could nurse AND be part of the action!
Great advice! My baby girl is definitely a distracted nurser at 9 months old.
Thanks for linking up at The Tuesday Baby Link Up!
I wish I would have known this 3 years ago! This is the exact thing that caused me to wean my daughter. The head-on-a-swivel plus TEETH was quick to steal my joy in what I thought would be my last child. I can’t wait to see how this information works with my new baby!
My son is 9 months and won’t nurse anywhere but our bedroom. Period. Even the couch or chair I’m sitting in distracts him, at home or in public. I have to feed him before we leave because he won’t nurse until we are back in our dark, noiseless bedroom. He won’t take a bottle, either. Needless to say I avoid leaving the house for more than a few hours. I’m glad I’m not the only mom dealing with such an interested baby!
My 7 month old son is the same! Just wouldn’t nurse out in public or new environment. As a result I even got my periods early because once we were out for 4.5 hours and he just didn’t feed. I tried everything!Even in our friends room that was darkened! It’s frustrating but like you Jessica we don’t go out much and not for long as he is such a frequent feeder. Glad to know it’s not just me!
It certainly helps to know that others go through this. My baby girl is 6 months old, has always been a distracted eater, but lately it seems soo much worse! I have been doing everything the same, I feed her in our bedroom but if there is any noise or it seems like if my husband is there at all she won’t focus long enough to have a good feed. She hates having the nursing cover on too when we’re out in public. It is proving to test my patience as well. I really don’t want to stop breastfeeding because of this… It is concerning because she is already in the low percentile for weight and I’m sure this is not helping her gain weight!
Ho humm I just don’t know what to do.
Hello,
This is years later, and I hope this comment gets to you. My son is so distracted while eating to the point that I have resorted to nursing him into naps and dream feeding him. He is gaining weight SO slowly. It’s very worrying and frustrating and stressful. I feel like I’m constantly offering and he is constantly resisting. Please tell me this passes. This past 2 months have felt like torture.
Hi Roselle,
It sounds like you’ve been trying everything you can think of! I would strongly encourage you to visit a lactation consultant. We’re not medical professionals so we can’t give you medical advice, and I can only guess what the issue might be. Is your supply lessening to the point where your son is frustrated with nursing a lot and not getting much milk for his effort? Have you tried supplementing with formula? If he is at a low weight for his age, you’ll definitely want to see a lactation consultant and possibly your child’s primary care provider (and your own) to try to figure out what’s going on, as well as the best strategy for both helping your son to nurse well and helping him to gain weight, even if that means supplementing with formula.
Praying you find answers successfully!
A soft and colorful fabric nursing necklace definitely helps!
My 9 month old is going through the same thing. After a bit of googling and reading, I’ve discovered 9 months seems to be the peak for distractible nursing babies.
May I ask if this phase passed, or did your babies continue to be distracted through age 2 and 3?