Ouch!! 7.5month old biting breastfeeding - help

[washingonawednesday]

My son is 7.5 months old and has just got his first 2 bottom teeth. Has started to bite the last 2 days and has just drawn blood! I say 'no' very firmly, but he thinks it is hilarious and a great new game. I want to carry on breastfeeding if at all possible, but my husband has left us for another woman so I am stressed and unhappy as it is and I'm not sure how much of this I can take.

Any tips greatfully recieved

thanks

[grubbalo]

Oh you poor thing

Biting is horrible and is usually just a phase - a kind of "wow, this gets a different reaction from mum" sort of thing. With both of my DSs, the best tip I got was to push them on harder rather than try to pull them off - pushing them on makes them much more uncomfortable and it also absolutely wrecks if you try to pull them off.

Also remember you have done amazingly well to feed for 7.5 months and that if it all gets too much you are not failing if you stop now. BF is fantastic but you should only do it for as long as you both enjoy it. Don't let it become the no1 focus of "being a good parent". If you do keep going though, this phase will stop (and then start again a few months down the line, if he's like my boys...!!)

[washingonawednesday]

Thanks for that. With everything else that's going on biting seems like the last straw, but I'll try to push through the phase and keep on.

[reddaisy]

Oh god, I remember that phase, and their teeth are sharp little things! Nothing I did seemed to work but it did pass relatively quickly I think.

Sorry to hear that your husband has left too. If your DS is still having nightfeeds, I always found it much easier to bfeed than get up in the night and mess around with bottles etc.

Good luck.

[RitaMorgan]

Put him down immediately and go and do something else for 10 minutes. My ds went through a biting phase too and it seemed to last forever, but he's stopped now.

[washingonawednesday]

Oh god- and now he is not taking his last feed. Totally not interested in the boobs...any ideas?

[chelen]

Hi, try not to worry too much about either problem. At 7.5 months your baby won't have any bother if he skips one feed, it could be anything - maybe he's full, maybe he's poorly. Also I found with my son he went off it a bit when teething cos I guess it hurt.

Agree with grubbalo above, push the face in - basically the aim is to cover the nostrils so they have to open mouth to breathe. Don't say no or whatever because at this stage they ill find it funny. Other thing is get your little finger into back corner of their mouth and crowbar jaw open!

My son did it too, it was very shortlived, probably only four or five times in total. Now he's got a full mouth of teeth people often ask about biting but it really was only in the very early stage of teething it happened. Good luck!