Weird nursing behavior at 4 months

[@llli*coopermama]

My baby is 4.5 months old and recently became difficult to nurse. Sometimes he's in a really good mood and will keep pulling off to smile and talk to me which means it takes forever for a feeding. Other times he acts kinda frantic and pulls off and on to cry. He will punch my breast and suck like crazy. He never stays on for long and I don't know when to just end the session anymore. It's not overactive letdown cuz the behavior continues even after the flow slows down. Sometimes I burp him but I don't think that alone is the cause, maybe teething?

The only good nursing sessions now are in the middle of the night when he's half asleep, which by the way have increased because he is feeding more poorly during the day now. He doesn't take bottles well either. I assume some of this is normal, I guess my question is can i have hope that this will end and he go back to normal and have calm nursing sessions again? Or will it just get harder as he gets older and more distracted? Maybe I need to start spacing the feedings out so he is hungrier?

[@llli*raileesmom]

I wouldn't space the feedings out. It may lead to your baby not nursing enough and lowering your supply. Both not something you want to have to deal with. When my DD acts like this it is usually because she is tired. She wants to see and do everything that she realizes she is hungry because she wants the comfort of mommy's arms to snuggle and sleep. I just lie down with her in a dim and quiet room and try to see if she will nurse to sleep. This started when she started a little sleep regression.

Your DS is old enough to teethe so if it is that, it is possible his mouth is sore and he is having a little difficulty finding a good spot to do his nursing until he is really tired and doing it automatically.

The only other thing I can think of is that he may have a little earache?

[@llli*bonniefleming]

I think we may have the same baby! When my lo started nursing like this I started frantically searching, and posting trying to figure out what was happening. What I have come up with? Normal. These little stinkers are going through a very distractable phase where suddenly the world around them holds much most interest than mamas ta tas. It can be scary because I thought my supply was dropping ( and I guess it has the potential too), but just like most everything else on here, I watch her diaper output and feed her more often. During the day I squeeze two feeds in every 1.5 hrs just to make sure she gets what she needs. I am gonna try to see if a nursing necklace helps. And oh, Kellymom has a great article on this exact type of behaviour.
http://kellymom.com/parenting/parent...ractible-baby/. Good luck mama

[@llli*debbers]

4 months was when baby distraction started for us. Sights and sounds were suddenly clearer and louder and more interesting than nursing. The 'fun' nursing sessions were when my dd would latch and then whip her head to look somewhere w/out fully unlatching and do that like 20 times. Ah ouch ah ouch ah ouch. Oh and sometimes she'd get frustrated and cry. No magic solution just tried to nurse where it was quiet and calm. I'd stroke her forehead down her nose with my finger. And id take little breaks. Often if I just let her get fully distracted for a few min she'd want to return to focused nursing. And sometimes not. That phase gets replaced by another and another and another as months go on. All of them exasperating yet beautiful in a weird way.

[@llli*wuvamber]

Yup totally normal behavior at 4mo. My DD would only nurse well during the night and on top of distraction I had slight OALD. At around 6-7mo she came around to loving boobies again and not being as distracted. If there is a loud noise, she will still pop off the breast to check it out (she is 9.5mo old now), but most of the time she is content to nurse for 5-10min straight.

Just keep finding opportunities when your baby is sleepy, that worked best for us at that age.

Good luck