Breastfeeding Stages: From The Drunkard To The Obsessed

Breastfeeding Stages: From The Drunkard to The Obsessed
This post was published on the now-closed HuffPost Contributor platform. Contributors control their own work and posted freely to our site. If you need to flag this entry as abusive, send us an email.

Breastfeeding is an amazing time to bond with your baby. But have you observed how the style, duration and frequency of his feeding habits change over the time? Give or take a few months, the pattern usually is something like this:

The Drunkard: 0-3 months

On retrospective, it is the easiest stage of parenting. Just like how booze is the answer to everything for a drunkard, breasts are the answer to all baby woes. Is the baby bored? Feed him. Is he feeling lonely? Feed him. Is he sleepy? Whip out the boobs again.

However, the baby has very little "tolerance" at this stage. A few sips and he just blacks out like a drunkard who has been boozing all night.

The Distracted: 3-6 months

In this stage, ensuring that the baby gets enough nutrition is quite difficult. The sound of a creaking door or the sight of a fly is more than enough for the baby to get distracted and stop feeding. This is the stage when you need a pitch-black room without a soul in the vicinity to breastfeed peacefully.

It is often the poor dad who often faces the wrath of the mom, as uttering anything or stroking the baby with affection while breastfeeding is more than enough to disrupt his dinner.

The Biter: 6-10 months (if you are lucky enough)

Ouch, he is teething. Until now, you would have been singing a lullaby or whispering sweet stories to the little one while breastfeeding. But now, it is screaming all the while. You might think you can relax a bit once the tooth erupts, but no, the next one is coming up shortly to get you. This is often the time when you feel like quitting breastfeeding.

Straight to Business: 10-13 months

The busy baby has a lot of tasks to accomplish. He has to crawl, explore the world around him and pull down the house brick by brick. So he gets straight to business when he needs some mummy milk.

But sometimes the mother might be the subject the little one is keen to examine. That is when he makes his first attempt at multitasking by simultaneously eating and shoving his tiny fingers into your nose and mouth to explore what is in there.

The Obsessed: 13 months-god knows when!

Maybe this is the time the baby realizes that breast is the best. You might be a little embarrassed to go out with the baby, as he would be staring at your breasts like a weirdo when he needs a quick mummy snack.

Don’t feel relieved as the frequency of breastfeeding goes down, because if the baby sets his mind on having a breast snack, nothing can stop him. He will scream bloody murder until his mission is accomplished. Some smart babies who believe in being self-sufficient even learn to pull down Mom’s zipper, open the bra straps and treat themselves.

Follow my parenting blog at Mad Over Baby

Popular in the Community

Close

What's Hot