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Baby won't nurse during the day? Distracted? Reverse Cycling?

  1. #1
    evgreen is offline Registered User
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    Baby won't nurse during the day? Distracted? Reverse Cycling?

    My daughter will be 8 months in a few days and for the past week or two she has been losing interest in nursing during the day. I work part time and gone for about 6 hours for the day. During the time that I'm away, she'll have about 8-9oz of milk from a bottle which isn't much. Lately she's been refusing the bottle too and the helper will feed her milk from a cup which she tolerates pretty well, but always tries to offer the bottle first. I used to come home and nurse her right away, but she is not interested and becomes distracted now.

    I am still nursing her at night because she definitely needs the nutrients from breast milk. She will typically wake 2-3 times a night to nurse. On the weekends, it's the same. Even if we have a no bottle policy while I'm home, she is still not very interested in nursing unless she's just woken up from a nap (usually 2 naps a day). I make sure to always offer her breast before any solids.

    Here's a typical feeding schedule for her:

    6:30/7am - wake up and nurse (sometimes she's interested, sometimes not depending on how much she nursed during the night)

    8am - breakfast, 3oz pureed fruit and porridge

    10/10:30am - Wake from nap. 5oz EBM (this is the max. amount she will take from a bottle)

    12pm - lunch (3-4oz of pureed vegetable with meat with 2 Tbsp baby rice)

    2pm - Wake from nap. 3-4oz of EBM

    4:30/5pm - I 'offer' to nurse. Most of the time she will refuse this feeding

    5/5:30pm - dinner (3-4 oz of pureed vegetables with baby rice)

    6:30/7pm - Nurse before bedtime

    7pm - 7am - Nurse on demand

    How can I encourage her to nurse more during the day? I want her to take up nursing in the morning and afternoon again, so I can begin night weaning at some point. I don't feel confident doing so unless she can increase her milk intake during the day.


  2. #2
    carang's Avatar
    carang is offline Registered User
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    as your daughter gets older, she will gradually take more food and less milk. if you are only gone for 6 hours, sounds like she's not hungry. don't force-feed her. she'll eat/nurse when she is hungry.

    from the look of your schedule, she's getting plenty of nutrition. you have her eating or nursing every 1.5-2 hours... that's quite often. and 3-4oz is quite a lot of food...i wouldn't worry too much.


  3. #3
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    Gataloca is offline Registered User
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    Agree with Carang. When my baby was around that age, he used to eat or nurse every 3 hours.


  4. #4
    Koan is offline Registered User
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    Honestly I think your baby might be full from solids.

    Offer to feed before solids. Try offering solids about an hour after feeding, so baby will be interested but not so hungry that she fills up. Solids are just for fun before 1, they shouldn't replace breastmilk.

    Also, this is around the time when they like to crawl around and explore so feeding can be difficult when they are so distracted. I often give my 8 month old something to hold or play with while he feeds. Today he held a highlighter. ;-)


  5. #5
    evgreen is offline Registered User
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    She's usually much more interested in her solid food than nursing even if I offer nursing first and limit the amount of water she drinks. Sometimes lunch is at 1pm...depending on her nap schedule. I'm not worried about her going hungry, but I really WISH she would drink more breast milk during the day so I can cut out NIGHT FEEDS though which is basically every 3-4 hours during the night! I was hoping that by this age, she'd be waking up less at night, but this just isn't the case. The night feeding is my primary concern and any kind of advice regarding this issue would be greatly appreciated.


  6. #6
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    carang is offline Registered User
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    sounds like she may be waking out of habit rather than need... have you tried to give her some expressed milk instead of nursing during a night feed? then you'd see how much she is actually drinking.

    is it possible that she is comfort sucking at night?


  7. #7
    Koan is offline Registered User
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    Cut back on the solids then. Like I said, she might be filling up solids and that is affecting her milk intake.

    Probably not much help, but feeding a couple of times a night is perfectly normal for this age.


  8. #8
    evgreen is offline Registered User
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    Babies just seem to do as they please, don't they?! Just when I was trying to rethink my feeding strategy with her, LO decides to take up her afternoon feed again and sleep thru the night again. I guess you could chalk a lot of things up to 'growth spurt' but then again, you never know...

    Quote Originally Posted by carang View Post
    is it possible that she is comfort sucking at night?
    She really does take a full feed when she wakes up at night.

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