A dawdler baby loves taking his good ol' sweet time during breastfeeding or bottle time. He may eat a little, stop, look around, sigh, eat a little more, stop, stare at you a while, take a slow sip, stop, and so on. This can be frustrating because one, you do have laundry to do and would probably like a shower sometime this century, and two, by the time he's done eating, it's practically time to feed him again. That means almost all the time
around the clock nursing or feeding.
I had a lazy dawdler baby myself and it was tiring at time but I did pick up some helpful tips during that adventure. Here's what you can do to encourage a slow or lazy eater...
Gently nudge your baby in the ear. Use the tip of your pinky and just barely poke his little ear (right on the inside). My midwife taught me this trick and it worked most of the time. The poke stimulates the sucking reflex - in the case of a distracted baby he may have just forgotten to suck and the poke will remind him.
Keep him cool. An overly warm baby is a tired baby who won't eat as well.
Tickle him. A little tickle under his chin or lightly on his feet may perk up a lazy eater.
Help him along. While breastfeeding, you can lightly squeeze your breast a little which helps milk to release and may encourage your baby to eat.
Clear out other distractions. Before feeding your baby make sure he's changed and awake enough to eat. Keep in mind that even slow eaters will eat enough food though, they just eat slower. So long as your baby is filling diapers and steadily gaining weight there's no cause for concerns and most babies eventually learn to eat faster.
