stop the biting!

[trylyn5]

My 8.5 month old dd has two bottom teeth and what looks to be three coming in on the top right now. She is BITING me all the time. I have marks on my shoulder from her bites but I don't care about that. What I care about is the bfing biting. I'm starting to understand why people wean at this stage even though I planned on either letting her wean herself or weaning when I'm pg the next time.

Any suggestions would be great. So far, when she bites down, I stick my finger in her mouth to break it, say no bite, and take her off. (I feel like I'm talking to my dog ;)). If she's nursed well. I switch sides or we're done when she does it the second time. But she's started doing it some at the beginning of a feeding too before she's even got a let down (I usually let down quickly) which, I think, is probably delaying that as well.

I asked the LC on Tuesday and she told me to try positioning her so she had to reach up further as this would make it harder to bite. It also seems to make it harder to latch...

[Camille]

I'm right there with ya. Mia is almost 8 months old, and she likes to latch on with her two bottom teeth (she has none on the top luckily) and she pinches the top of my breast (only when she nurses the right side, does she pinch). She's leaving bruises from the pinching.

My problem is that she bites as she is latching on and then when she is done nursing, but thankfully not in the middle. (she pulls off when done, unfortunately, she drags her teeth across my nipple as she unlatches).

Just commiserating. :hug:


I definitely get why some people wean around this age.

[shellyvanness]

So there! My dd2 is 8.5 mos too. SHe has 4 teeth 2 top and 2 bottom and she bites only on the right breast through the whole feeding. I can take her off but then when I let her latch on she starts all over again. She has bitten me so hard that she has bitten through the skin and made me bleed. It hurts soooo.... bad to nurse her on the right and I cant get her to stop. I am trying very hard to get her to take EBM from a sippy so I dont have to go through the biting anymore. I was told to have her chew on something cold about 30 min prior to eating but all that did was make it a cold bite. But you could try it to see if it helps.

[Nipple_nectar]

I agree that this age group is generally teething and giving baby something frozen to gnaw on will probably minimize the biting, for at least twenty minutes prior to the session, like a frozen bagel or frozen fruit in the mesh feeder. You should also address possible teething pain by giving Hylands teething tabs.

If you think it is a distractibility issue, you should try a nursing necklace, this will divert babys focus to the brilliantly colored beads and get the focus on something positive.

For pain management from nipple trauma, I highly recommend the silverette, my biting LO is 20 months old and I would have never gotten this far without them! Check out the link: www.breastfeedingheaven.com