Help with My 9 Month Old and Breastfeeding!

this is normal for this age..

she is too interested in her world to want to nurse.. and her tumy is full from her solid meals..

you can try to change the timing of the nursing but dont expect her to want to nurse after she just ate a meal.. I never gave mine bottles right after a meal either.

You might have to nurse only in her room with the door closed lights off and your older child watching a show quietly.

its normal...keep up the good work

You have the right attitude by staying committed to breastfeeding. My lo was easily distracted at 4months old (now 10 months old ) and I got creative to keep him on the breast. Here are suggestions from my experience and I hope this helps you.

1. Most important, nurse BEFORE solids for every meal. Solids are supplemental to nursing. So, your lo should be getting most of her nutrition from breastmilk. She is still learning about solid food and working her muscles and tongue to moving around the food in her mouth and swallowing. Try cutting back on portion size. Breastfeeding is the priority.
2. If you nurse before solids, it want be necessary to nurse right after solids too. Babies can associate negative feelings about nursing if forced to breastfeed.
2. While nursing, play some music or turn on some white noise to drown out any distracting sounds. Try dimming or darkening the room. Shutting the door is good only if your 4yo is ok. My routine is closing the shutters, turning on his noise machine, and getting him into his sleep sack which signals to him that we are about to nurse.
3. I like routine so I nurse every 4 hours at this age which helps stabilizes his metabolism. As he got older and more active, his appetite increased for breastmilk and I very slowly increased his solids.
4. My lo went through a phase of constant unlatching to talk or smile at me. I just smiled back and he latched back on. It is a phase but try not to encourage it to become a habit.
5. I hated hearing ththat it is a phase and trust your lo. You don't have this perspective unitl after the phase it over. If you keep breastfeeding first and solids second, your lo will be getting enough. She is happy, gaining weight, plenty of wet diapers, etc.

I hope nursing improves and youget some peace of mind.

I wholeheartedly agree with the other posters who say to nurse before solids and to space it out more. I think she's just to full to nurse. A baby's tummy can't handle that much food at one sitting. Also, solids are just for fun and learning about new foods at this point. Until you're ready to start weaning or you aren't producing enough milk, there shouldn't be a whole lot of solids. She obviously likes to nurse; she just needs room in her tummy. (Oh, and for goodness sakes don't give her sugar water!!!! Good grief!!)

Very normal - the world is exciting at her age! And at this point both of your are very effective and efficient nursing machine.

She is getting PLENTY. My daughter was just like her around that age and she didn't end up weaning herself till she was 3.5 YEARS old!

I agree with the other post though - if you want her to nurse more, you can try nursing her BEFORE her meals. I still do this with my 20 month old son, but he is a real boob-man!

Great job!
:)

Here was my son's schedule at that age - hopefully it will help you:

6:30 a.m. nurse
8:00 a.m. breakfast (solids)
11:30 a.m. nurse (whenever he woke up from a.m. nap)
2:00 p.m. nurse (before p.m. nap)
4:30ish nurse
6:00 dinner (solids)
7:30 nurse

I think the key was splitting up nursing from solids, not trying to do both as a complete meal.

K.
http://www.discoverytoyslink.com/karenchao

Someone told me that breastfeeding them before giving them solids would help them to get what they need by nursing, but still enjoy trying the solids-they just would not need to fill her up because she already nursed. Good luck!

Definitely nurse before you give her anything else.

Solids are great, and they should always come after nursing.

And good for you for refusing to wean! Hang in there - be sure she is good and hungry when you nurse her.... and don't let her see any other snacks or foods out and about either or she'll be inclined to request those instead. All of mine did.

Hang in there!

At nine months they should breast feed every 4 hours 7am 11am 3pm 7pm or something like that~ solid foods follow the breast. I usually wait half hour to 1 hour the only time food is before the breast is dinner. hope this helps~ D.

Sounds like one of those "breastfeeding strikes". Now that she's able to notice more, there's naturally more to look at.
I think the only way is keep doing what you're doing- nursing in another room where there isn't any distraction, and then just be patient. It may take 15 minutes now where it took 7 before.
Good luck, and CONGRATS on the nursing! :)

I don't know if this is a really radical thing, but I never tried to nurse mine after he ate. I would bf in the morning wait a couple hrs and give some food, wait another couple hours and nurse, couple hours food, couple hours nurse. This created a schedule of about 3-4 nursing sessions and 3 meals. My son did great with that and was always in like the 90-100% for height and weight. Maybe she isn't nursing bc her tummy is full with food. You could try 6:30 nurse, 8:30 breakfast, 10:30 nurse, 12:30 lunch, 2:30 nurse, and so on. Of course this is a sample you can make any adjustments needed. But maybe trying to nurse when she isn't already full would help. Good luck! It is challenging but I think it is awesome you want to keep nursing, I did it for a year and it was great:)

I think it is great you are still nursing!! My resource for nursing is the Nursing Mothers Companion and I remember reading that you should always nurse before feeding until you want to wean and then nurse after solids. Maybe this is the issue - she just isn't hungry. Sounds like she still likes nursing when she is hungry in the morning. Keep at it, it also could be a phase. Good luck!!

If you nurse AFTER solids, they will be too full to nurse.
Nurse BEFORE solids. This is what our Pediatrician said... and so you can continue nursing and keeping your milk supply.

Nursing at this age is still on demand. A baby's PRIMARY source of nutrition for the 1st year is from breastmilk or Formula... NOT solids and not other liquids.

Try to nurse her BEFORE the solids. She may still be distracted and into other things. You can try a nursing necklace to keep her attention, but it is normal - although frustrating.

You know that she is getting enough if she still has enough wet diapers each day.

This is quite normal. Realize that she is not going to let herself starve so relax and she will nurse when she wants to. If you find that you are getting overly engorged, please be careful to pump or hand-express some of the breastmilk as you could get a duct infected (mastitis - a bacterial infection and pretty painful).

Other signs that you can relax is that she has wet diapers (pees) regularly. If she gets dehydrated, you will see very little pee and very yellow pee.

She sounds very healthy and even a week at this rate is not uncommon. Some mothers call this a "nursing strike". You can find a lot more information searching with that.

i have an 8 month old. our schedule is nurse around 5:30 am. possibly nurse for a few minutes at 7:30 when she wakes up, but usually just eat a 4 oz jar of baby food. nurse at 9:30 before her nap. eat 4 oz jar of baby food at 11:30. nurse around 12:30 or 1 before nap (about 1/2 of normal time). nurse when she wakes up around 2:30 or 3:00. eat 4 oz baby food around 5:30 or 6. nurse around 6:30 before bed (again about 1/2 of normal time). she usually wakes up to nurse around 10:30 or 11. she doesn't sleep through the night so we usually nurse again around 1:30 am. then we start the cycle all over again :o)

i would suggest nursing then offering solids. at this age it is hard to keep interest because there are so many exciting things going on around them. i have to lock the door to keep her older sister out so that she will nurse and not be distracted. i turn on a sound machine to block out the background noise.

good luck!

All the doctor's say "they'll get enough" or "they won't let themselves starve" but I've always wondered. It sounds like she might be weaning herself alittle early and finding her independance. Its ok when that happens even though you will miss it. She does need water so just try to put alittle sugar in some room temp water in a sippy and see if she takes it. Once they start to get older, the nursing turns more into a comfort thing in the morning and before bed just keep feeding her for bfast lunch and dinner with some cheerio/cracker snacks in between. Give her water (with sugar if she wont even look at it) and diluted fruit juice. If you start her on milk too soon she may develop an allergy to it so just keep her on the breast until at least a year. Its so full of nutrients that she will get what she needs. You may try to pump and put it in her sippy too. Good luck!

My first child started to 'lose interest' around this time and the La Leche people I talked to suggested nursing when he was sleepiest....so I started to nurse him immediately when he got up for the morning and from naps, and just before I put him down for naps and at night. It made a huge difference and he continued to nurse until he was about 22 months. I agree with all the posts that suggest nursing always before solids and spacing it out more....