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please help! don't really to stop bf but teeth nightmare!

5 replies

Gemzooks · 15/02/2010 14:06

DD is 10.5 months, I fed DS till 12 months and wanted to do the same with her. she's on 2 feeds a day, eats loads of solid food and is slowly but surely cutting down on BF. she is not addicted to the breast and goes to sleep fine without it. recently she was teething and I got mastitis from suddenly feeding her loads to comfort her, then she got these MASSIVE front teeth. for the last week she's been digging in with them, she basically holds on to the breast with her teeth while sucking. I can't stop her doing it, I've tried different positions like lying down, rugby hold, tried getting more of the breast in her mouth etc, but she just clamps on. She knows I'm upset and comes off and cries, but doesn't understand why. So I now haven't fed her for 24 hours and have given her cows' milk and some follow on milk I bought in desperation. she eats so much, including cheese sauces, yoghurts etc, she doesn't really need to drink great volumes of actual milk. but now I feel very upset as it's crunch point, if I let it go any longer I will have stopped bf. My DH says what's the big deal, it's a difference of 5 weeks from when I wanted to stop anyway, but I do feel upset. I'm not really willing to start getting the breast pump out etc, she's only having 10 mins in morning and 20 in evening, it just feels a bit sudden!

does anyone have any great tips for stopping the teeth thing?

much appreciated!

OP posts:
Are your children’s vaccines up to date?
deliakate · 15/02/2010 16:07

When DS got teeth, as soon as he nipped me, I gently took him off the boob, covered it up and ended the breast feed. He only did it x3, don't know if my approach was what stopped him, but I didn't get any trouble after that.

spongeitup · 15/02/2010 16:57

DS got his first four teeth at 10-12 weeks! We did still manage to bf for 13.5 months but went through a tough period for about three weeks with the biting and me nursing through clenched teeth, often with tears in my eyes. Eventually I figured out that he was really entertained by my reaction even though it wasn't positive. So when he clamped on, I would yelp "Ow! That hurts mummy!" and then cover up and end the bf session immediately, which would generally make him unhappy. I thought it wasn't working but he only did it maybe 5 more times and then stopped completely. Good luck, it is painful...

PrincessBoo · 15/02/2010 17:50

When DS started doing this I found this link at Kellymom really useful:

www.kellymom.com/bf/older-baby/biting.html

I used some of the tips on there described by other Mums and we got over the hump in 3 days, it was brilliant.

Gemzooks · 16/02/2010 20:35

thanks very much everyone! the kellymom tips saved me..
I worked out that I'd been getting very lazy positioning her, one hand drinking a cup of tea, other on a book, probably she'd felt like she was slipping and so clamped on. last night thought I'd try once more, positioned her really really carefully and it worked fine, same today. for some reason it's not easy like it was before but it works if I hold her very supported and tummy to tummy. so looks like I will be carrying on to the 12 month mark! thanks!

OP posts:
PrincessBoo · 17/02/2010 10:07

That's great - I'm so pleased to have been helpful.

With my DS it was about him using my nipple as a teether so I started to offer him something to bite on instead - usually a cold flannel. We made a game of it and it made him laugh. I also tried latching him on in different positions so that his teeth weren't placing pressure on the same part of my nipple each time - it worked really well.

That Kellymom site is great isn't it?

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