Dry-Nursing

Question
Hi, I have read through some post on dry nursing kittens but yet I still feel that the answers don't fully solve my problem. I got a kitten a few weeks before Christmas. But he seems to try and dry nurse, A LOT. At first it was cute but now it's just annoying because he keeps me awake some nights. He nurses on any part of my body he can get to, hands, eyes, ears, everything. When I'm sleeping I just continuously push him away or put him on the floor. After about 10 times I start to get grumpy. During the day he'll come up purring to cuddle and I pick him up to cuddle him and he instantly sucks on my neck or whatever else is near. I usually tell him "no sucking" and put him on the floor. It's been about a month now since we've gotten him and he hasn't stopped at all. In some of the other threads it was suggested that he is suffering from anxiety. I'm not expert but my kitten is spoiled and he is a very very happy kitten. He loves both my boyfriend and I and gets LOTS of attention. One minute he'll be playing and running around all crazy and then the next he'll run over and try to nurse. It also suggested trying to distract him with something else, but trust me I've tried but once he want to nurse he'll keep trying. I also noticed that spraying some sort of sour spray on yourself, but I would pretty much have to pour it on me because he tries to suck on any part of my body he can find. We both don't want to put him in another room I think that will only make him worse, because when we do leave the house he hates it, when we come home he's all up in our faces purring. He's also slept with us the whole time we've had him so I think it would be hard for him to be without us. It's starting to become an issue because I work and I can't be up all night because he tries to nurse. My boyfriend is completely fed up, he feels bad because he can't really punish him for it, but there is no way to make him stop. Do you have ANY suggestions on what to do or what is wrong with him.

Answer
Miss Kylee K,

Unfortunately you may not be able to stop this behavior. Kittens who have been taken from their mothers too young will tend to do this quite often. My almost 9 year old cat sucks on her tummy because she was hand raised. If a kitten is taken from mom at less than 8 weeks of age or if your kitten was under 12 weeks of age and is fairly timid you can end up with this issue. The only thing that I can suggest is to try to redirect his nursing to either himself or a toy that is safe for him to nurse on. I have not had any success stopping that sort of behavior, so unfortunately I am not much help that way....Like I said, very early separation from mom, or somewhat early separation from mom combined with a timid kitty can be the root of the problem. I know that for my almost 9 year old kitty I hand raised her from a week or so old...Her sucking behavior started around the time that I was weaning her which was about 4 weeks. I wish that I could be of more help than this...Patience and trying to help him focus on something other than human body parts or clothing to nurse on is probably the best route to try. I know that with my cat she tried my lip, my ear, my neck, other cats in the house, all before she found one thing that I didn't redirect - herself! Good luck with this. Hopefully I was able to offer you some insight into why the behavior is happening. I wish that I could do more to help. If you have any further questions or concerns please do not hesitate to contact me again.