5 month old barely nursing

[starmile]

My 5 month old has barely nursed the past few days. She's definitely teething and she's really distracted, but this is the worst it has been. She will nurse for 2 or 3 minutes, pop off and then refuse my breast. 
She's still waking up to nurse 3-4 times a night and will nurse for 10-15 minutes per session, I think because she's much more relaxed.
It's really stressing me out that she's nursing so little. What can I do to help her nurse more? Will this get better? Help!

[Scootaloo]

Aww, I remember this. It's so stressful! Google "nursing strike" and you'll find a lot of tips. You're absolutely right that she's more relaxed at night and she's probably tanking up during those sessions. Another thing you could try is to take a warm bath with her and try to get her to latch while she's relaxed from the skin to skin time.

You might want to have her checked for an ear infection or anything else that could be causing discomfort, but otherwise just know that this is very common and you two will get through it. Make sure she's having enough wet diapers, but aside from that, just try not to stress.

[flcl]

Hmmm... PP has good advice on where to start. At first, I was going to suggest that maybe LO is just super efficient now with nursing but if she's still eating for a good 10-15 mins during MOTN feedings, I'm not so sure. When LO was about that age, he was only nursing for a couple of mins during our sessions. (The time it takes him to nurse always dropped pretty dramatically... 15mins to 7 mins to 2-3mins and now he's back to 7mins.) His disposition was good, he had lots of diapers and he was still gaining weight so I just figured things were ok. Another good place to check for tips is kellymom if you haven't looked there. Try not to stress and best of luck!

[starmile]

Thanks. I've checked kellymom and googled the heck out of nursing strikes. It seems like everything I read about nursing strikes says baby will completely refuse to nurse, not just drastically reduce.

I've seen the suggestion about the bath but haven't tried that yet. I'll give it a shot tomorrow.

I think she's probably getting more efficient, but she used to nurse for 30-60 minutes at a time when she was 1-3mo old (struggled with a good latch for a while after getting a lip and tongue tie corrected) so it feels so weird for her to be done in less than 5. Probably just a combo of more efficient, sore gums and distracted.

Thanks!

[Scootaloo]

She could also be reverse cycling, which is just a fancy way of saying that she's filling up at night and therefore needs less milk during the day.

Babies always like to switch things up on you just when you think you have something figured out or a good routine going. It's lucky they're cute.

[casey]

It's such a pain when they are distractible like that. Even something like the dog breathing could end a nursing session around the 5-7m time. Can you relocate your nursing sessions to a still, dark place? No tv? Nothing distracting to look at? No conversations? Alternately, give baby a lovey, scarf, or necklace to keep occupied during the session. The world just might be so interesting that it's hard to keep focused -- and, filling up by night means she's not so hungry at day.

If you think it's due to teething pain, try giving an ice cube or frozen bm in mesh feeder (we also did frozen peaches in mesh once she started solids) to gnaw on before nursing session.

[Deleted]

If check for teething pain see about pain relief. And a ck for ear infection too just to be sure