Ripping off (or not!)

[LuluHB]

I'm at the end of my rope at the moment. Miss A is getting worse with day time feeds. Unless I am in close to a pitch black room and lying down with her, she is constantly ripping off or nearly off while feeding - sometimes dragging my nipple with her in whatever direction her head is going, and sometimes releasing my nipple but doing it so violently that its even more painful than not releasing at all ITMS. My nipples are so bruised and raw that just having a bra on is agony with the movement of fabric over them.

Obviously best case scenario is to always feed her in a dark room lying down but that's just not possible for a lot of the time, especially now the girls have finished school for the year. I've started putting my boob away if she keeps mucking around but the end result of that is our 1-2 hourly overnight all night feeding becomes every 40 minutes while she catches up.

Any ideas on what I can do to discourage this? She won't feed if I use a nipple shield and she flat out refuses a bottle. Any and all pearls of wisdom gratefully received. I'm so thrilled that we've made it past 6 months, but geez its not always fun

[Jennifer13]

Ahhhhh the little rotter! This too shall pass, and I hope quickly for your sake.

I think you'd probably be able to guess at all the tricks to keep distraction to a minimum, best I can suggest is finish the feed as soon as she starts to seem done. DD2 def mucked around and hurt if I missed the finished signs.

[onthefly]

Congratulations on achieving this milestone!
It is a really ****ty phase. I think not letting her hurt you is a good move - the make up night feeds are a real pain, though. I have just ridden it out with both kids, so no actual advice, sorry.
Hope it passes soon for you.

[NicNac]

What about trying feeds with a muslin wrap draped over you both? Limits visibility and possibly distraction.
Well done for making it to six months.

[HotI]

This is what i do - have one arm on baby's back to support their body, and the other ready to break their attachment if needed. If baby starts to pull away, i can push them towards my breast first (so less stretching of the breast), and then break the attachment before baby moves his head taking breast with it. I know when he is more likely to be distracted, and at these times i am more vigilant.

It doesn't really stop him doing it, but it does stop me from getting boob damage. A funky necklace he can grab seems to be the best way of keeping his attention on the job, and i know this will pass.

[LuluHB]

Just how quickly can she be done? Its literally two minutes before she's stuffing around in a huge way, and that just seems so unbelievably quick - basically 30 seconds, let down, 90 seconds later she's off in la la land. Is that long enough? I'm really questioning her day feeds given how totally crap our nights still are. I was sure that by this stage she would be getting at least a little bit better but its not.

Nicnac - yep, tried the muslin with hilarious results. Mainly achieved to nearly strangle us both while she looked a bit like a rat in a sack underneath it trying to fight her way free ;-)

[Reet]

My DD was a snacker too, from day 1 she wld only feed for about 3 minutes max! Thats probably why I have never had more then 3 hrs sleep at night! Nowadays she is just a full on boobie monster and wld be happy to be attached to me all day, just like she is all night! :/

Im pretty sure all babies go thru the pulling off when they start getting curious about whats around them, a necklace wld probably help though. You can get necklaces that are bright etc especially for breastfeeding. I think I have even seem them on Pinky McKays website. Like the others have said try and ride it out and hopefully it passes quickly! Maybe u cld try detaching her urself once ur letdown finishes so she doesnt hurt you when she does it?? And then just try and feed her hrly during the day with short feeds to try and cutback on some of the night feeds?? Good luck!!

[onthefly]

2-3 minutes is plenty at this age, yeah!
and the sheet was never much use once they figured out how to yank it off
The thing is, the nights might be about food - and some babies get a lot of their milk during the night, it's just they way some babies are - but sometimes there are other things going on contributing to the bad nights, as well, so it's hard to say.

[OceanPrincess]

Mine have never liked sheets either!! As MadB says, a few minutes is fine - it might just be that she is getting enough to stave off the hunger during the day but then having the real feeds at night. It's even got a name - reverse profiling. My DS1 did it when I went back to work. Completely sucky but it was what he needed.

Its a good idea to try and get her off right before she starts fussing about. She might even decide she wants to have another go in an hour or two - just follow her lead. Frequent quick feeds are ok, might help with nights.

It's a tricky age!