Expert: ruth kraft - 3/15/2011

Question
My baby is almost 12 months old. Until starting solids at 6 months old he was exclusively breast fed.  He is eating a wide variety of foods  now.  He gets most of his liquids from me as he has refused a bottle, cup etc up until now. In fact a few months ago I had to leave him for 56 hours and he refused a bottle the whole time but would eat solid food. Upon returning from that time away he resumed nursing without any problems.  He will drink from a cup now. I will be traveling for 3 nights (less than 72 hours total) away from him.  He will be able to drink breast milk from a cup while I am gone.  I am prepared to express milk regularly while I am gone to keep up my supply.  I am concerned about him not being interested in nursing when I get back.  He is nursing about 4-5 times a day right now and is always interested in nursing when I return after being gone for a short time but I have never left him for this long.  My gut tells me that he will still be interested in nursing but I think I am just worried from hearing those moms who say their babies never nursed again after they left for a short while.  Do you have any insight?

Answer
I would agree with your intuition. It is likely that he will nurse just fine when you return. I have had clients who were not able to nurse for almost 3 weeks and still come back to nursing. There are babies who don't but because you have had such a good relationship up until now and he obviously prefers the breast, he will likely gladly reconnect with you when you return home.

I hope that helped!Congrats on such a wonderful relationship with breastfeeding!