How to Nurse A Distrascted Baby

Babies get easily distracted and this has become a challenge for moms while nursing.  The baby may not be rejecting your breast if she is below a year old.  Babies can get distracted by anything and everything at all different stages and ages of their nursing career. As your baby becomes more aware of her surroundings, she will want to see it all, take it in, and will hate to miss a thing. When Grandma walks in the room, when Dad talks, when the television is turned on, or even when there is a distant lawn mower starting, your baby will turn off the boob.  It will become harder and harder for her to ignore the noises, voices, and new happenings in your baby's life.

It is your new challenge as a mom to experiment with what works for your baby to get in good solid feedings. A quiet and private place everytime you nurse is one option to get into. A totally different eater is what becomes of your baby in a quiet room or with the television off. The idea that at ages under one year, your baby is not purposely weaning herself is for you to realize.  For your baby, curiosities come first before hunger pains.

Changing your position is one good option while nursing. One possible way of calming the baby enough to take her out of learns my new world mode and put her into nursing mode is to simply lie down.  As your baby gets bigger, it is a bit easier and more comfortable for Mom to lie down.

Another way of making your baby comfortable while you nurse them is by having or wearing some comfy nursing maternity clothing and making sure you have proper nursing apparel that you and your baby needs.  Nursing pajamas, nursing gowns, nursing cover and nursing bra can be very helpful.

Offering more frequent feedings will solve the problem, even if it requires more work.  Even if your baby does not ask, you could try putting her to your breast more often during the day to see if you can get more small feedings in to even out the total intake of milk.

Feeding the baby at night, when there is less distraction would be the last resort.  Before sleep patterns, nutrition come first.  This may be thought of as an opinion because both are almost equally as important.  If it really came down to a choice, choosing nutrition would be an advice.  In my opinion, sleeping regularly and well is just as important as nutrition for an infant that is developing sleep habits for the first time.  Throughout the day, it will make up for lost feedings if you are at the last resort.

Keep in mind your milk supply is based on supply and demand theory and if your baby keeps up the distractions while she eats, your supply will go down and you will then have to work harder to bring it back up. As soon as you realize that your little one has started catching distractions, you will most likely catch her attention back before she develops the habit of doing it.