I have had this with two of my children.  My second (and only girl) did not ever want to nurse for comfort – a big challenge because she was such  a slow gainer (but ahead on all her developmental milestones).  So there wasn’t a reason for her limiting her feeds except that I had a fast MER and she is a picky eater.  The joke was she was born being a picky eater and it’s only gotten worse.  At about 15 – 18 months she discovered nursing for comfort and nursed until a bit over 4 years old.  Then my fourth was this type of nurser – I was tandem nursing and had tons of milk.  He refused to nurse if he got milk when he wasn’t hungry and would only suck on a finger to comfort suck.  At about 4 – 5 months the learned the different ways of nursing without really getting a big flow of milk and learned to comfort nurse more (he also nursed until 3 years old).  So while it may seem odd to have a baby not want to nurse for comfort and want to spend a lot of time at the breast it doesn’t mean they are destined to wean early.  Just be respectful of the way they want to eat and always let them know the breast is there if they want it, then the nursing for comfort will follow.

I hope that helps.

Felicia Henry, BCCE, IBCLC
Oxnard, CA

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