My breastfeeding philosophy has been and is that I will continue as long as Eddie is interested and it is conducive to our lifestyle. As a stay-home Mom there is really nothing to stop me from continuing and it still feels very natural, easy and seamless with our daily routines. But the past week Eddie has been showing signs of naturally weaning. Sometimes he just takes a few gulps and that's it, sometime he will only nurse from one breast and then leaps out of my lap to continue playing and sometimes he refuses altogether, squirming out of my arms and/or pushing me away. I don't take it personally of course - I know he just wants to play play play and has no time to take a break. The frustrating part about it though is two-fold 1) it is causing me to get painfully engorged since my milk is backing up, forcing me to pump more to relieve it, and 2) it is making me concerned about his fluid and caloric intake. I have read that he is supposed to be drinking 24-32 fluid ounces of breastmilk or formula a day, and there is no way he is getting that. I am trying to give him supplemental bottles and presenting milk in his cup with meals and in the sippy cup but he only drinks like 1-2 ounces at a time and he still cannot drink without assistance so I really can only do it during meals. He still will only suck on the nozzle of the sippy cup and bite it and play with it, but never actually gets any liquid out. I don't know what else to do. The whole transition from boob to cup or bottle to cup sounds so simple in the books, but what if your child has no interest in the cup for nutritional purposes at all? And to make matters worse, what if your child is on the slim side and he really needs those calories? The only info I have found in books discusses what to do if your child totes around the cup all day and is on the obese side.
Maybe I have done a disservice by always breastfeeding him before naps and bedtime; so now he associates boob with sleep. And since he always wants to be up and playing, he tends to get a little pissy when it is bedtime, hence he refuses the boob too. So I am trying to feed him more when he gets up from naps and throughout the day and not always in the same chair in his room, since, again, being in that chair must signal to him that it is time to go to bed. I guess only time will tell if he is truly weaning or if this is a nursing strike or what, but I feel a little lost in the woods about it all...
Friday, July 24, 2009
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