My 8 month old just got over a stomach bug this past week (only lasted about 1-2 days), and since then he has not been nursing (or eating all together) very well at all. His normal eating routine, before illness, was waking up between 8-9am, then nursing. Then cereal (with breast milk) around 11am, with some cheerios or puffs, then morning nap. He eats a jar of fruit around 1:30-2pm, then nurses before he goes down for his long afternoon nap around 2:30-3pm. When he gets up from his nap, usually between 5-6, I'll nurse him again (he was starting to cut this one out a little before already), then he'll get a jar of veggies for dinner around 8pm, then nurses again before bed at night around 9:30pm. He is usually a very good eater (he's a big boy), obviously. (He would also have sips of juice periodically, but not much cause he doesn't really care for it). Since the stomach bug, he barely nurses, or even wants to and when he does, he'll go for maybe 2-3 minutes on the first side (with or without let-down), then if I can get him to go more, maybe another minute or two on the next side, then he just acts like I am torturing him if I try to get him to nurse more. I haven't really been giving him much solids since then just cause I'd rather him nurse so I don't lose my milk supply. However, when I have given him a little bit of cereal or fruit or something, he really wants it, and will eat all of it if I give it to him, but then usually will spit some of it back up a little later, and then will NOT want to nurse at all when it's time.
My main question is, is he starting to wean himself from me, or is this all still just from the stomach bug and he'll get back to wanting to nurse, or at least nurse a little longer again? I'm not ready to stop nursing, but I know my milk supply has already started to decrease because of all this. I don't really want to pump anymore, as I already have a TON of frozen breastmilk stored in a seperate freezer and I don't want, nor have more room for anymore. I just am not ready yet to stop nursing, but I don't know the signs of weaning, since I nursed my first son for 15 months and weaned him myself. Also, if it is just from the stomach bug, about how long will it take him to get back to his normal eating routine??
I just had this stomach flu a couple of weeks ago and it took me a full 6 days to regain my appetite; I imagine it would take longer for your boy to get over it (probably up to 2 weeks). I know it is a pain, but I would recommend pumping to maintain your supply until he gets his appetite back. I know when I was starting to feel better I only wanted certain bland foods, and no dairy to speak of.
Sounds like a nursing strike. Babies under a year DO NOT self wean. My daughter had the same thing and was puking for 10 days. Follow his cues, offer the breast frequently and before solids. If he's still not holding down solids, then it's ok to exclusively breastfeed. My 13 month old went back to exclusively breastfeeding during her bout and has only just started eating solids with gusto about a week after she stopped vomiting. It may take him a week or more to get back on track. You might want to pump and eat oatmeal (in any form) to keep your supply. Be sure that he is getting enough to stay hydrated as that is the dangerous part of vomiting and diarrheal illnesses in infants. And be sure to keep plenty of fluids in you too. The rest of my family came down with the same bug a few days after the baby and I ended up in the ER for dehydration myself. Nothing like getting two bags of saline for Christmas.
it does sound as if he may be self-weaning early, but i think you are wise to want to keep the milk flowing. not just for you, but because he's young yet to go off breast milk altogether.
pumping is a pain in the tookas, but i think you need to bite the bullet. either pump and pitch it, or start replacing the oldest of your frozen stuff. you need to keep it coming while you figure out what's going on with him. i'd give it about 2 weeks.
khairete
S.
L.,
I'm not sure if your son is self-weaning or not, but if he had the same stomach bug my daughter and I had, he won't feel like eating for quite a few days. My daughter's eating habits didn't get back to normal for over a week, and her bowel movements didn't get back to normal for 10 days. I didn't eat anything for 2 days after the stomach bug, only drank gatorade. On the 3rd day I ate plain toast, and some chicken soup. I didn't eat much for 6 days. So, you might want to give it a few more days and see if he's getting back to normal. Also, your supply will increase again if he starts nursing more, so you might not need to pump unless he quits all together. Best of luck!
I would contact La Leche League. 8mo. is too young to be weaning. I would arrange your schedule so that you have lots of time to hang out and nurse him on demand it will be the easiest thing for his stomach to digest and it will help your supply I would do this for about a week and just keep an eye on how he looks, pees, and poops and if necessary let the dr. take a look at him.
We just had a stomach bug, as have several of our play group friends, and my 12 month old is still not eating any solid foods and taking very little formula, maybe 10 ounces a day. He still has very bad diapers, too. The doc said it could be up to ten days before his appetite returns. I know it's been about four days for me, and my appetite has not returned at all either.
So, bear with him! :) Good Luck,
D.
Some children wean when they're ready. I was sick for an entire week shortly before my son turned 7 months and was placed on some strong meds to clear up an infection. I bottle fed him formula and stored breast milk. However, once I had gotten over the infection, my son wanted nothing to do with nursing. (In my case, I honestly considered myself lucky b/c I didn't have to go through the trouble of weaning him myself.)
Your son could still be getting over his illness. My son had a virus that lasted a week, and once he became better, he slowly fell back into his feeding pattern. Now he's back to 32 ounces a day and plenty of solids, but it took another week after he had gotten better before he had any desire to eat that much.
My son has the stomach bug right before Christmas... and let me tell you, this bug that is going around is a bad one this year. I have a bunch of friends whose kids got it also and it is taking an average of 9 days for the kids to get back to their normal eating routines. We had to stop dairy completely with my son (he's 20 months old) for 7 total days because his stomach couldn't tolerate it. Since it seems it really hasn't been too long since your little ones been over the bug, I would just continue to go with whatever he wants to do with eating. Like I said before, it took 9 days for my son to really even ask for something besides toast of applesauce, and then another 4 or 5 for him to get back to his normal habits. Give him some time, and let him eat when he's hungry and eat what he wants to eat :) He sounds like he's a good eater usually and doesn't have any problems, so I'm sure he'll get back to that place again in a few more days.
It sounds like he's trying to wean himself. Perhaps he doesn't like laying down to drink anymore. Since you have a lot of milk stored, try thawing it and serving it to him in a sippy cup. That we you can still have you be his source of milk, use what you have, and he gets to reach a milestone with a cup.
