All three of my children have done this between the ages of 3-9 months. 
Yes, it certainly did make things challenging while out in public.

However, while going through this phase...my babies WOULD nurse in a 
sling/soft carrier....so I used to nurse lying down at home and then in the 
sling/soft carrier while out in public (usually in an upright position with 
the baby straddling my waist and my lifting/holding the breast for baby).

I think the reason for their preference during this time was for two reasons 
1) At home *I* would frequently choose to nurse lying down, since during 
those ages I would never knew when they would fall asleep, and if we were 
already lying down I at least had a *chance* of getting up and having the 
baby stay asleep (instead of trying to put down a sleeping baby.).  2) I 
think that position might help the baby "concentrate" more on 
nursing...since it seems to start right when the baby enters the highly 
distractible phase.   In the cradle hold there would be lots of 
"on/off/on/off"... while lying down they seemed to nurse a lot more calmly. 
I believe that is also why we were able to successfully nurse in a 
sling/soft carrier (usually while walking/pacing around)...I think the 
fabric which held the baby a bit closer/tighter helped the baby focus a bit 
more, along with the movement of my pacing/walking.

All three of my children got past that stage around 9 months and turned into 
toddlers who would happily nurse anywhere, at any time,  in any position. :)

Amelia Bentrup, LLLL, RI, USA

(hope I sent this right...I've never posted before.)
> ------------------------------
>
> Date:    Tue, 5 May 2009 07:47:34 -0700
> From:    Star Siegfried <[log in to unmask]>
> Subject: Breast Refusal-babies who only nurse lying down
>
> Hi Diana and kathleen and others who have responded to this post.
>
> I wanted to talk about this because this can be very stressful for a
> new mom. I have mostly seen it as later onset,
> at about 3-5 months. Yes right when babies are going through other
> developmental milestones. For a mom who can't retreat to a bed, futon,
> or couch 8 times a day or has to take a plane somewhere this situation
> can get moms really stressed.  Even though the moms feel strongly
> about bf, my current mom is resorting to bottles as she is so worried.
> One of the reasons I'm putting this out on Lactnet is because I want
> to make it real. Not every mom is going to surrender to this.  I have
> been seeing this for so long and have read nothing in our books about
> it. I would like to call it:
>
> Breast refusal: Babies who only breastfeed with mother lying down.
>
> I would like to see this get in our text books. I guess the next step
> is for me to write up a case presentation.
> I see this in the context of facilitating mother's groups. I believe
> this is a very real type of breast refusal and puts mothers at risk of
> weaning as some don't want to lay down to nurse for two years. Some
> think something is different about their baby(yes) and start giving
> bottles unnecessarily. We need to understand etiology and how to help
> resolve this issue.
> So far 3 people from our list have observed this.
> Thanks so much,
> Star Siegfired
>
>>
>> From:    Diana Cassar-Uhl <[log in to unmask]>
>> Subject: Re: Babies who only BF with mother lying down
>>
>> Hello!
>>
>> I have one of those babies who will only nurse lying down!  She is my
>> 3rd, and I'm definitely an "experienced" breastfeeding mom.  She did
>> have some reflux, we are an allergic family, so yes, there were those
>> issues, but Gabriella wanted to nurse lying down from day one.  I can
>> count on one hand the number of times we've breastfed from a seated
>> position, and those haven't been "good nursings" by any standards.
>>
>> I got very worked up about this in the early weeks, until my very good
>> friend from La Leche League suggested "maybe she wants you to lie down
>> with her because she knows it's the only time you ever do."  This was
>> such a wonderful realization for me, that I didn't have to "diagnose"
>> or "fix" anything, I just needed to enjoy some cozy time with my baby!
>>
>> She's 17 months old today (5/5) and we still have the futon set up as
>> a bed in our living room -- we retreat there several times a day and I
>> am so thankful for sweet Gabriella who makes me take a few minutes to
>> slow down!
>>
>> --Diana in NY
>>
>>             ***********************************************
>>
>>> Date:    Tue, 5 May 2009 11:22:57 -0400
> From:    Katherine Lilleskov <[log in to unmask]>
> Subject: Re: Breast Refusal-babies who only nurse lying down
>
> Is it breast refusal or world refusal? Do they need to shut out other inc=
> oming=20
> stimuli in order to nurse?  Have you had these women try feeding baby upr=
> ight=20
> in a very dark quiet room, to see what happens.
> Kathy
>
>             ***********************************************
>
> 

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