Baby distracted easily when feeding- advice please!

[Heb1]

Hi everyone, my LO is 4 months now and exclusively breastfed, but I am finding it increasingly difficult to feed him during the day. He gets distracted so easily and won't stay on the breast former more than a couple of minutes and when I try to put him back on he gets really grumpy! The result? Frequent snacks all day long, then he is up every 2 hours through the night to catch up (he feeds really well at night!)

I have tried :

-Feeding in a darkened room

-Feeding in bed after nap time when he is drowsy

-putting a muslin over his head while feeding

-White noise while feeding

-different positions, cradle, lying down etc

Nothing seems to work ( or it works for a day then he gets wise to it!)

Has anyone else had a similar problem? What worked for you?

Thank you!

[cheekymonkey3791]

Oh god yes, I totally sympathise, the world and everything in it has just become a whole lot more interesting, I had this going on for months and months and must have tried all of the above. They have a sleep regression at around 4 months as well which may not be helping your corner. All I can suggest is preserve and keep the environment as boring as possible when trying to feed. I wish I could help but sounds like you have tried all my tricks

I have just been going through sleep training with my LO at nearly 8 months as we were in a vicious cycle and am finally starting to break it but my training is age related. You could always go to your baby clinic and have a chat with HV at weigh in

Am sorry I cannot help you...All the best x

[Heb1]

Thanks cheekymonkey, it's good to know I am not alone! I think you are right about the sleep regression not helping, it's frustrating to know he can go for longer (he did 6 hours once) but doesn't.

We tried co sleeping last night, I ended up putting him back in his cot at 4am as he was chatting away to me quite merrily as I was trying to sleep.

Seeing the hv next week so I will see what she says.

Hope the sleep training goes well x

[cheekymonkey3791 in reply to Heb1]

No worries and thanks you, when we went thought the sleep regression (which is totally normal) he was making physical leaps as well, started rolling and then didn't want to sleep on his front so I was forever rolling him back...he would also have long wakey periods in the night, sometimes 2 hours before could settle him back down, it was if his day had started in the middle of the night and needed to wear himself out before ready for bed again....used to drive me nuts as I was so tired.

You say he used to sleep 6 hrs so you know he can, well my LO used to cluster feed (BF) & doze 7-10pm then sleep in bed from 10pm-7/8am before this started! I even could indulge in an alcoholic beverage as I knew I was not feeding or tending to him in the night.....we just had to put their needs before our own and suffer the sleepless nights for a while, a big old smile usually put things right in the morning X

[Allyemo1985]

Yeah been there it seemed for us to be a phase and a change in his senses becoming aware of his environment etc. we just got on with it but for me the night feeds didn't stop at all because I live in dubai I have to use a cover when going out. It became a nightmare if I has to feed in the car great no one could see but eating out. Frustrating. They only way I overcame this was two tops and ditched the cover took plenty of practice. We only introduced a sleep method when I weaned about 4 weeks ago. We did CC just like it stated night 3 hardly any fuss. Even tonight he was so tired put him down cryed out for 30sec then went to sleep. . . My. LO is 10 months old

[faelonsa]

Baby started doing the same. Only thing I find that helps is holding him tight in cradle position with his head between me and my arm so that he can't move his head much. I also talk and Sing to him loudly to keep his attention on me. But the hands! Getting the bottle past is tricky. I also have him faced away from the windows and lights as he loves staring at them.

[dot1]

I had this! But finally realised that what he was doing was thoroughly annoying, but fair enough really. If something fun was going on, he wants to look at it. The problem was for me I think that I was making him feed when perhaps he wasnt hungry enough to concentrate on feeding yet. Do you stick to a strict time regime of feeding? I was doing that and I think that was causing some of the problem. Now I feed him when he cries or grumbles or starts to get fed up with what he's doing. If there is something more entertaining going on though he stops and looks, if it persists too much, I put him down facing the thing he wants to look at and dont waste time or energy trying to force him to feed. Does that make sense? Its still a nightmare when were out though as he pops his head up to watch other people leaving me exposed to the world every two minutes! Hes just nosy! Also, I wouldnt try and make it quiet all the time hes feeding or dark, so that he gets used to feeding sometimes with noise. I put the radio or a favourite (calm, not a kids) program on in the background. I'm a fan of Fraiser an old sitcom and I often put that on beside us just for a bit of distraction noise! Hope this helps! Good luck! xxxx