Elizbaeth Posted April 19, 2018 Posted April 19, 2018 I need some advice or tips from parents who have been through this. I’m currently nursing my second son, who is 9 months old. He had always slept in the bed with me and my husband, since this allowed me to actually get some sleep and be ready to handle both boys during the day. Lately, I’ve had an insanely strong desire to literally throw him off of me while he nurses - specially at night - and I’m looking to move him to his own crib. It’s at a point where I do not want to nurse him at all, and fight the urge the flick him off of me and push him away. He is the needier of my children in terms of personality. I loved nursing him at first. I had all the wonderful feelings of warmth and closeness and happiness and I always felt rejuvenated and restored, and it is only in the past few weeks that this feeling has taken over. He does seem to be in a growth spurt and is eating like crazy lately, and I think he needs to nurse, but for the life of me it is growing some very bitter and madly irritable feelings in me hat I don’t know how to handle or where they are coming from. The feeling start as soon as the letdown reflex occurs, and I just become overwhelmed with this incredible desire to get him off of me immediately. He also had begun kicking and punching during the night and no one is getting much rest anymore, so that’s another reason I want him moved. I’m not pregnant, so I don’t know where this nursing aversion is coming from or how to handle it, other than to just grit my teeth and force myself to obey. I do feel an unreasonable resentment for having to nurse, now, and really really want to make it stop. Does anyone know if it is a deficiency or related to anything else? Thanks for the help!
Tuddtfudders Posted April 20, 2018 Posted April 20, 2018 This is a preliminary study on BAA (Breastfeeding aversion and agitation), that was done in 2015 and it found that there are quite a number of mothers who have this problem. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5684792/ It doesn’t give any solid conclusions, but it suggests that, from a biological viewpoint, BAA is nature’s way of encouraging weaning due to insufficient nutrients or hormonal imbalances. It suggests if a mother is not eating or sleeping well, and the baby is taking too many nutrients away from the mother, then she/her body is likely to have feelings of BAA to avoid nutritional loss. I’d encourage you to read the study, because it also gives references to other studies you’d for sure find useful. I’d also urge you to bring this up with a health professional (If you haven’t already), for they of course would be the most knowledgeable on the subject. Since BAA can raise cortisol hormones in the mother’s body which then get into the milk, it’s doubly important to get a professionals recommendation. I’m very sorry you’re going through this, and hopefully there is someone on here who’s experienced it firsthand who can help you out more.
Elizbaeth Posted April 21, 2018 Author Posted April 21, 2018 @Tuddtfudders Thank you for the article. It was very helpful (and I was very surprised at how similar the descriptions of the feeling are ) and helped me figure out what may have been causing it and how to handle it. I think it may be a result of more hormonal shifts and badly wanting to get a solid night's sleep at long last.
Jsbrads Posted May 1, 2018 Posted May 1, 2018 Is he eating enough? Kind of along the same idea as above, were he eating enough foods, he would not be taking as much from you and it would be less taxing...
Elizbaeth Posted May 4, 2018 Author Posted May 4, 2018 On 5/1/2018 at 2:37 AM, Jsbrads said: Is he eating enough? Kind of along the same idea as above, were he eating enough foods, he would not be taking as much from you and it would be less taxing... He had just started eating some baby foods. I think I was just dying for a solid night’s sleep and getting desperate to have a teeny bit of independence again, even if it is only while I’m sleeping.
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