7 Month Old Losing Interest in Nursing?

My son is the same way. He will fight and get very frustrated if my milk doesn't let down immediately. This just causes the milk not to let down, because he's not sucking on the breast long enough to trigger it. This just gets us both very frustrated and I've thought about ditching it many times. Now her rarely has a bottle, and will often times refuse it if we try to give him one. So I don't think he's wishing you were a bottle.

I think that this time is a key point for a lot of babies. I only have mine for experience, but my second baby was the same way. She fought and complained if the milk didn't come. I finally gave up with her and decided if it's not enjoyable for either of us, then no reason to fight it. That started about 7 months as well.

I don't have alot of great advice to give you, just to let you know that your not alone and your son does not wish you were a bottle.

Hi C., I'm a Lactation Consultant and mother of four. What you are describing is not uncommon in children that age. Sometimes its about teething or becoming interested in other things going on around him. You mentioned nursing him too often, he may be nursing more frequently because he is a more efficient nurser but likes and needs to touch base frequently, in other words you don't need to worry about what the right number of times he "should" nurse. Little ones go through phases, just like we do! Feel free to call and talk. There are lots of very normal reasons your child is nursing more.C. Clark ###-###-####

My advice: don't worry about it unless he starts losing weight or showing obvious signs of dehydration.

My child also became antsy when nursing around that age b/c he'd suddenly become so much more aware of the world around. So be it. He also became expressive enough to let me know when he wanted to nurse, so I started to pay attention to those signs, too. Finally, sometimes I just needed to wrap him tightly in my arms and hold him near the nipple for a second and he reorganized and latched back on. If that didn't work, I just let him crawl away.

He's now, once again, much more persistent when nursing. Just a phase, I guess, like so many things.