Any experience with reverse cycling?

WildcatPrincess

I know it's not uncommon at this age to be distractible, but my goodness!  DD acts like she's starving, latches like she hasn't eaten in years, then sucks long enough for a letdown and is on and off and on and off - like 30-60 seconds at a time.  After 10 mins or so I put it away and I swear if she could shrug she would....like oh well, it's gone, I'll go play.  Now, of course, she seems to be getting most of her calories at night where before she was only nursing once.  I've tried changing rooms, not using the laptop or TV while she eats, I've even nursed her in bed under the covers!  She still pulls off and stares at me since there's nothing else to see.  Any advice, support, "I've been there"s?  Is it a phase she'll outgrow?  I try offering it during the day even when she's not acting hungry to try and get more in her, but forget about it.

BelhurstBride

DD went through the same thing a couple weeks ago. It seems to have passed. I mean, she's still highly distractable, but she's getting what she needs somehow because she's back to waking only once to eat at night. I think it might have been more that she was going through a growth spurt, perhaps yours is going through one as well?

BubbleToes

Both of my kids reverse cycled. My dd did it from about 8 months to at least a year, my ds started earlier (like 6 month ish) and is just now tapering off. It's hard - I sympathize! I offer all.the.time during the day. Sometimes it helps, sometimes it doesn't. At night I do like you do and stay off of the Internet and keep the TV off. I can't say it makes a big difference but it doesn't hurt. She will outgrow it eventually. Do you cosleep? That's what saved me. I know several women that called this stage a nursing strike. They weren't open to reverse cycling so their babies ended up "self" weaning. It's a tough stage to get through but if you can make it it's completely worth it IMO. Hang in there!

WildcatPrincess

BubbleToes:

Both of my kids reverse cycled. My dd did it from about 8 months to at least a year, my ds started earlier (like 6 month ish) and is just now tapering off. It's hard - I sympathize! I offer all.the.time during the day. Sometimes it helps, sometimes it doesn't. At night I do like you do and stay off of the Internet and keep the TV off. I can't say it makes a big difference but it doesn't hurt. She will outgrow it eventually. Do you cosleep? That's what saved me. I know several women that called this stage a nursing strike. They weren't open to reverse cycling so their babies ended up "self" weaning. It's a tough stage to get through but if you can make it it's completely worth it IMO. Hang in there!

Oh yeah, at moms group today the group leader told me it sounded like self weaning and when I said no, DD is very interested in nursing at night she was appalled and said she wouldn't be offering it at night.  Well....otherwise it will be weaning and that's not my goal here!  It's nice to know other people have experienced this.  We only cosleep part time - from 4 or 5 AM on, because I don't trust my husband (he's a very deep sleeper).  It's unfortunate because she does sleep better next to me.  I'm also starting to wonder if she's finally getting teeth and that's why she's nursing so much at night, I've heard some babies feel less pain when nursing?  I had to give Motrin to get her down at all tonight (DH isn't comfortable using the amber necklace overnight) because she just kept fussing and wanting to nurse, but then grinding her gums on me.  Oh well.  Thank you!