Babies: 0 - 3 Months

XP: Anyone else have a lazy eater?

LO takes forever to nurse.  Each session is between 45 minutes and an hour, and sometimes she'd go longer if I let her.  I fight to keep her going as she just wants to sit there with my nipple in her mouth.  If I take her off she screams because she's still hungry.  She will suck and swallow for a minute or two and then hang out for a few minutes.  I read posts from ladies whose LOs nurse for 10 minutes and I am so jealous. 

What am I doing wrong?  Is there any way to encourage her to speed it up?

Re: XP: Anyone else have a lazy eater?

  • This is the story of my life!  I have finally decided to EP because I could not get my LO interested in eating.  He was losing weight BFing.  I would BF for an hour and he would still be hungry afterward because most of the time he just sat there or fell asleep.  I've tried all of the tricks to keep him awake and interested and they just don't work.  Even the wet washcloth trick doesn't phase him anymore!  I figured that even though EP is time consuming, it will probably be equal in time to what I would have spent nursing him.  But I'm not saying you should do that.  Maybe one of the tricks will work on your LO to wake her up/ motivate her.  Have you tried:

    -stripping her clothes, changing diaper, tickling, rubbing nose, putting wet washcloth on her back

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  • Are you sure she's screaming bc she's hungry and not b/c she wants to suck? Have you given her a soothie?
  • We've tried giving her a pacifier and most of the time she refuses.  Sometimes i think she might have reflux becaus she squirms a lot at the breast and screams after feedings, especially if she is horizontal.  I have the hardest time burping her and usually don't get anything.  She doesn't spit up much though (not even every day).  I am so lost and frustrated. :-(
  • I am bottle feeding, so I don't know if this will apply, but...  I noticed she is a lazy eater when I have misread cues and she isn't really hungry.  I was feeding her every three hours, because she would cry exactly at that point, but she was eating so slow and just letting it run down her chin, falling asleep, etc...  I realized she just wasn't starving or really hungry yet, just eating out of habit and not really into it.  So I started stretching her feeding times to see if that would help.  Now she is eating every four hours, and she is actually hungry when she eats, so she stays awake to eat, and actually eats a full amount.  
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  • My little guy is lazy too- ever since we introduced the bottle once in a while a few weeks ago, he will grunt and move around and get mad about 5 minutes into his feed when the milk doesn't flow as fast- it's like he's mad that the milk doesn't come as easy from the boob as it does from the bottle :) It also still takes him a good 1/2 hr- 40 min to eat (but that's not totally his fault- I have a strong let-down and he has to rest every few sucks to breathe sometimes!)
  • This is part of the reason why I decided to EP. DS was taking 45 minutes to an hour because he would fall asleep while eating and I would constantly have to wake him up to eat. 
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