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My DS is 6 months old and we are starting to run into some troubles nursing that I could use some advice on. The symptoms are that as soon as I put him down in a position to nurse (across lap or on the bed next to me) and get my boob out, he starts crying, even if he had been perfectly happy right before that. When I go to feed him, he latches on and will suck, but it's also starting to take a while for my letdown to happen, so meanwhile he's on and off the breast crying between. Once letdown occurs, he'll be fine for a little while, but then (presumably when the flow starts to slow), he's on and off the breast again crying. I then switch sides, hoping that the increased flow will be good, and there is quite a bit of crying as I get him to the other side. Toward the end of the 2nd breast, he is usually more calm/pleasant, but nursing is starting to become a little more stressful than it used to be.
A couple things that may be factors: 1) His bottom middle teeth are up; I can't feel anything yet on the top, but they could be coming. He has bitten me a couple times at the beginning of his morning feeding. I take him off quickly and scold him, but as he is already crying when this happens, the crying tends to get worse. 2) He had an ear infection a couple weeks ago - we've finished with the antibiotics, but maybe there's still some residual pain? I tend to doubt this since he's generally sleeping alright even when laid flat, and is not nearly as upset as he was when diagnosed with the infection.
I nurse him about 5x/day - roughly 7:00, 10/10:30, 1:00, 4:00, and an 8 or 9 dream-feeding session. He has an appropriate number of wet and poopy diapers.
Any suggestions or tips, especially on speeding up letdown and/or decreasing the mad baby, would be awesome.
Also, is this a nursing strike, or does a strike mean he's not nursing at all?