Does it hurt when they get teeth?

[Rhubarbgarden]

Breastfeeding has been all fine and dandy so far, but Now my 3 month old appears to have started teething, so just wondering what to expect really. I have no plans to give up breastfeeding any time soon, but teeth may change that!

managed to get to 8 months before DD1 drew blood...but everyone is different! good luck

It doesn't hurt at all. I breastfed DS1 until he turned 3 and DS2 is 17 months and still feeding and neither of them have drawn blood. They don't use their teeth when feeding, so it makes no difference.

With each new tooth, I have found it uncomfortable but not necessarily painful. But if you have a biter it can be excruciating.

DS stuck his teeth in my nipple a few times as they were coming through (which did hurt but didn't draw blood) but once they'd properly broken through the gum and he'd got used to them in his mouth it stopped. Took about 3 days. He doesn't have any top teeth yet though so don't know about biting!

I found that DS bit in the few days just before the teeth broke through, and yes it hurts but after that its fine. Tooth number two has just cut (10 months) and he was a nightmare for a few days before, but the morning he woke up with two teeth the biting stopped immediately.

For lots of people it doesn't hurt, no. My DS bit me once hard (drew blood!) but I screeched and he didn't do that again.

When both of his top teeth were properly through they would sometimes rest on my nipple and sort of graze- which was really uncomfortable. I just tried to re-focus on latching properly, wide mouth etc (and by this stage you can actually ask them to do it!) and the problem went away.

It's like any stage of bf- when you start you might have a few issues as you both learn and then as different things arise -teeth, nosy baby- you have to adapt a bit. And at every step there's always mn! And Kellymom, which has a great section on biting.

My DS's first 2 teeth (bottom ones) cut through yesterday. He's 6.5 months now and he first started teething 3 months ago, so you may have a fair way to go yet before anything actually arrives!

DS is a very disrespectful feeder so I am fully expecting him to be a biter, but as yet I'd say it's not been too bad - in the run up to the teeth arriving he gnawed on me a few times usually when tired, and as the teeth cut through it kind of felt like my nipple was being run through a cheese grater... but no blood and no discomfort a blob of Lansinoh didn't help.

Thanks! Okay I'll be ready for it now. It sounds manageable!

only when dd (9 months) bites, but that happend only twice so far. 2 teeth and next 2 just appeared.

DD only bit me a couple of times when she had a cold and couldn't breath through her mouth. I was told that if she bit I should push her into my boob so she would unlatch but I could never get the hang of that so I used to keep my little finger handy to stick in her mouth to break the latch. It didn't take her long to figure out that if she bit then she didn't get any

Still BF her now and she'll be 2 in a couple of weeks.

I have had two completely different experiences - one DD bit and just wouldn't stop, no matter what I tried, but I didn't even notice the teeth of my other DD, even though I fed her through 6 months of teething.

From chatting to friends I reckon that my little biter is the unusual one, other friends either had no biting, or biting that they could train the baby out of.

Ds has "bitten" me a couple of times before his teeth had actually come through, when his gums were obviously causing him a lot of pain. Since then he's cut one top tooth and one bottom tooth, but no biting yet.

Just wanted to point out that some things that were traditionally regarded as teething symptoms - dribbling etc - are actually linked to developmental changes and not necessarily an indication of teething. You may have plenty of time yet

That's interesting Jemjabella. what sort of development? She's dribbling and ramming her hands/fingers in her mouth, and getting quite crotchety with it.

My 8.5 month old has 7 teeth and has only bitten me a few times - mostly when I've been trying to persuade him to feed rather than him wanting to. He's never drawn blood.

Now his teeth 'scrape' for the first 2/3 days when they come through, then are fine.

As jemjabella says, part of the putting hands in mouth is because babies are developing more control over their bodies - their hands in particular - and are starting to want to explore the world with their mouths (but can only manage to get their hands in).

I read something on here about a theory that the increased dribble is to help stop them swallowing too many pathogens once they start putting things in their mouths. No idea if it's true, mind.

Both the dribbling and the ramming the fingers in are like I said, part of normal development too. True teething symptoms (which can include dribbling and chewing more but are not always necessarily symptoms, just to confuse you) normally last up to 8 days (unlike the months and months that my mother would have you believe )

So basically, if there's a tooth appeared in about a week, your LO was teething. If not, it's normal development.

I BF DD to 15m and was never really bitten - the only time it came close was when we were flying and I didn't realise she had a wee bit of cucumber in her mouth so kind of chewed as she tried to latch on. Bit ouch but not terrible.

I don't think it's par for the course to get bitten so hope you are lucky too.