How to stop the chomping before he gets teeth!

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My 20week old son is EBF, and has not been a straightforward baby to feed from the start. He is so concerned he misses something he is constantly on the breast, then looking around, then on the breast, etc, etc. But we have got to grips with this and can now feed without flashing my boobs and he is a big hefty lad so is obviously feeding well enough.

Now, though, he has suddenly decided to start biting down really hard when he feeds. He has no teeth yet but one is showing and will be through before long, and I don't want to stop BFing him yet, however I need to stop the chomping before I lose a nipple! He finds the whole thing hilarious when I tell him off, and due to his style of stop-start feeding he doesn't notice that I am removing the boob from him if I unlatch him when he bites, he is used to being on and off the breast. Any tips to get him to stay latched on and to stop biting?

And I wont even start about his daft habit of trying to suck his thumb at the same time as feeding

My DD was a devil for this. I have to say that in all otherways I try to be a fairly laid back, chilled parent but I felt this particular habit was totally unacceptable and, apart from anything else, if she didn't stop it before she got a mouthful of teeth I would have to stop BF her which wouldn't suit either of us.

What I used to do is to shout/say crossly "NO!!!, DONT BITE", take her very quickly off the breast (usually a reflex anyway TBH) and sit her on the floor. If I felt particularly annoyed/upset about it, I would also walk away from her for a few seconds. Gave me a chance to calm down and her a clear message that I wasn't happy.

I have to say I angsted endlessly about doing this and felt awfully mean but the biting is seriously unbearable so I felt it was either get it under control or stop and this was the least of the two evils.

She continued occasionally biting for a bit but it petered out quite quickly... partly because i got wise to her and could tell when she was in a 'silly' mood and partly because I think she learnt it resulted in no milk/cuddle for a minute or two.

I've read about a trick of pulling them tightly in so your boob covers their nostrils and they have to open their mouths to let go and breathe. I haven't got it sussed yet but DD chomps too.

No advice but glad it's not just mine who trys to suck thumb or fingers at the same time. He also stops to blow raspberries on me (lovely!), craines his head round to look at all the things he might be missing (so I end up with nipple on show half the time, just what you want whilst out and about). Mine doesn't chomp so much as grips the nipple in his gums then twists, owch. Really want to stop that habbit before we get teath!

Ds did this, and also used to grind! Ouch! I read about pulling him closer quickly to cover his nose so he would gasp his mouth open - it worked.

His first tooth appeared at 3 months, but using this technique got us through to 2yrs 6mths of breastfeeding!