Biting while bfing- any advice how to deal with this?

[gatorsmom]

Of course this would come up- just about the time I decide to BF the twins for the long haul...
Greenbean is getting his lower 2 teeth. He's about 4.5 mo now. And for the past week, he's been biting me on occasion when he's finishing up nursing. But for the past 2 days, he has been biting me EVERY time he nurses. Many times he's fallen asleep when he does it, but not always. I've been careful not to let him see the expression on my face when he does it (my first 2 babies started biting more often when they saw that it caused a funny reaction from mommy).

Ive learned NOT to try to detach him while he is biting down because that causes more pain. Any ideas how to get him to stop doing this? Or how to get the nipple out of his mouth while he is biting?

Any advice is greatly appreciated.

[SnuggleBuggles]

Ds just bit me the other day too (thankfully, no teeth yet!). At this age I don't think they are doing it on purpose so some of the common strategies probably don't apply. Like with ds1, when he was 9m old and bit me I firmly said "no" and took him off. He got the message. You can try it w/ a 4.5m old but I don't think that will be as meaningful. Look forward to other replies though!

About getting yourself out of there...have you tried pinching his nose? That's something I did with ds1 when I needed to detach him as he got older/ had lots of teeth. Mouth opens right up. Not the nicest thing, I know, but it works.

Beth

[wendibird22]

There's great advice on dealing with a biter on http:www.kellymom.com and how to spot the cues that a bite's about to happen.

[AngelaS]

I tended to just instinctively scream with pain and pull the baby off. Generally that would scare them (like it did me!) and they'd only do it a couple of times. One of mine drew blood one day and after I screamed and she let go and I saw blood, I sat her down on the floor to go get a Kleenex and she sat and cried for the few seconds I was gone. I'm pretty sure that was the last time she bit me.

[o_mom]

DS3 is a biter - both while nursing and in general <sigh>. It was worst when his teeth were coming in. The first thing I did was keep one had on the back of his head while nursing. It is the same positioning/pressure that you use for a newborn when you don't want them to get out of position. That gives you good feedback on when they are starting to get lazy or unlatch. As soon as he starts to slide off, break the seal by putting your finger in the corner of his mouth, again, like with a newborn.

If he does get a bite in, pull him toward you, not away. That will encourage him to open his mouth and let go and will not pull your nipple off. At 4.5 months, he is a bit young to make any connection beyond ending the nursing session. With DS3 now (11 mos) I will say "no biting", put him down and leave the room for a few minutes, but a 4.5 mo won't really make that connection.

[trales]

Push his head into your breast, that will cause him to detach and it won't hurt you as bad, the bonus is that he really won't like it.

[beansprout13]

DS bit me when he was about 6.5 months for the first time (very hard - drew blood). I screamed out of instinct and DS freaked out. He refused to b'feed after that (I was working at the time so he was bottle fed pumped milk during the day anyway - I was only nursing morning and evening at that point). I called a few lactation consultants, got advice, but that was it - he just refused to bfeed again - the scream just freaked him out too much.

So just be careful about scaring them too much....

[bubbaray]

Originally Posted by trales

Push his head into your breast, that will cause him to detach and it won't hurt you as bad, the bonus is that he really won't like it.

[JTsMom]

With Jason, I always had the most luck just sticking my finger in to pry him off. I also started being VERY careful about not letting him totally fall asleep so that I could prevent it. (He did the same biting after falling asleep thing.) When he'd start to slow down, I got ready to pull the boob out super-quick.

[DrSally]

Yeah, the one time DS bit really hard, he was falling asleep and his mouth closed hard. Also, as they're getting teeth in, they have to adjust their suck, so it takes a little adjustment/practice and there might be some nibbling during that time. I inserted my finger and put him immediately on the floor and said "no" firmly. At this age though, that might not be that productive, but then again, they might get the association of being immediately taken off with any biting. I would try to watch for cues (end of feeding, falling asleep, etc, and try to avoid as much as possible) for this age.