Nursing your toddler can be quite fun. Especially when they have a special word for it and can ask for it. And then there are the times, when they want you to breastfeed their favorite toy, in our case it’s the monkey, with whom we also co-sleep 😉
However there are difficult times as well. Right now we’re going through such a phase.
My daughter, who’s 17 months old now, has began to play with the opposite nipple! She squeezes it, pinches it, twiddles it…and it really hurts, even though her nails are trimmed short.
I have learned that all mammals do this instinctively as they want to increase the milk flow.
I’m sorry but I really can’t stand it whether it’s for the milk flow or for another reason.
I searched the internet and came across this link on Kellymom:
Nursing Manners. My understanding is that it’s better if you can discard such behavior early on, before it turns into a habit.
I read about a mom on the Mothering forums. She let her child twiddle the nipple, she wasn’t disturbed by it. One year later, she is pregnant now and has very sensitive nipples and doesn’t know how to convince the child not to do it. A really difficult situation, me thinks!
It is suggested that we should give the child something else to play with. I thought that a teat would be nice 😉 We have a bottle that we use when I express my milk (in reality we only used it a few times!). Daphne is very happy playing with it during the feeding times. And then she discovered other uses for it as well: It becomes a nice hat for the monkey! Naughty girl!
Isil, great to see you here, littlepixie twiddles too 🙂
Thanks Pixie!
I got pregnant with my 2nd baby while baby 1 was only 6 months and so I could not bear her touching my other breast at all. I am still b/feeding my toddler at 20 months (and her baby bro at almost 6 months) and to redirect her exploring hands I let her touch my tummy…she enjoys poking around my bellybutton which is a happy compromise for us both!