AAAAAAAARGH Please help with biting 9 month old - thinking about weaning :(

[GetTheXmasPartyStarted]

I am at the end of my tether and just don't know what to do. DS has gone through a biting stage before at about 5 months, but shouting "No!" and putting him down with no eye-contact worked after a few days.

He seems to be having a developmental leap and couldn't sleep last night and used biting as his method of expressing his annoyance :(

I love feeding DS and he loves being fed and was planning to carry on to at least 1 year, probably longer if he wanted but last night his new biting game came to a peak and he bit both my boobs so hard they were bleeding :( it really hurt and I'm scared he will only get worse as he could do a lot more damage if he tried (lots of teeth). During the day today he was fine though (?) although I am still very sore, last time he was bitey it was much worse at night.

I don't know what to do, I've tried "no" and no eye-contact and he doesn't care, last night I put him in the cot after the second bite (which he hates but is the only safe place I could think of as he is crawling/cruising) and he cried for about a minute then made himself sick another new trick he uses if he is frustrated/annoyed.

I spoke to the HV at my local (only) bf group last time he bit, and she kind of said either he'd stop or I'd have to stop feeding so... What else could I do? I really really don't want to stop feeding him but I am in tears at the thought of feeding him tonight :(

Please please can you think of anything I could do if he bites other than just not feed him?

(Apologies if this is incoherant, I only got a few hours of broken sleep last night)

OUCH, poor you. you probably already dol, but make sure you have a finger poised ready to stick in his mouth and break the seal as soon as you can to minimise the damage.
hmmm it is really tricky hey. does he understand at all?
perhaps you could use a bottle at night for a few days? does he still feed in the night, as i would think at this age he doesnt need it, so could you perhaps wean him off these - maybe when he is sleepy he is doing it more. i do agree that you should immediately stop the feedand say 'no', not sure that there is much else you can do. jhe'll begin to make the link - it's just whether you can handle it in the meantime.
i think there are web links about this but not sure - someone else will help i'm sure.
luckily for m,e my ds1 never bit, but my sister's son did and she weaned early i'm afraid.

My DS went through this biting (and clamping his teeth on and then dragging his mouth back off stage my nipple - nice!) for a while when he was teething. I found that changing the position I fed him in (to a rugby ball hold under one arm) helped a lot - he didn't bite like that - I guess because it changed the routine and surprised him out of it.

Also with my DS he used to bite at the end of a feed, so I'd put my finger in his mouth to ease him off when his feeding slowed a bit.

I do remember feeling really miserable that I might have to stop BFing as it was so painful and that my last memory of BFing would be me clenched in agony waiting for him to bite, but luckily doing these things stopped him biting really quickly - and that was when he was 10 months old, he's now BFing at just over 2, so I have plenty of other happier memories of it! :)

Oh, you poor thing.

You're right, there is a huge developmental spurt around 9 months - the 9 month sleep regression which will be why his sleep is messed up.

There's more info on the regression here, here and here.

No advice on the biting thing myself, but the Kellymom link is here.

Not sure if this is relevant but have only been bitten by my two a couple of times when I have been trying to feed them when they are not hungry, ie when feeding them to sleep.

Stopped feeding dd to sleep at arond 7 months as clearly recall repeatedly putting her back on the boob to make her sleep when ouch she bit me

can understand for her point of view, bored of feeding think i'll try something else.

Hope it passes soon