How to unlatch an older baby with TEETH. Ideas please ladies...

[neverquitesure]

Hello :)

Just hit the 1 year mark with DD (which I'm jolly pleased with having failed with DS) but am having some issues with ending feeds now she has a mouth full of gnashers and is old enough to see it coming.

It's not usually a huge problem as she'll either fall asleep if it's bedtime or I can tell her feed over and tempt her off with a toy during her (increasingly rare) daytime feeds. However the little piranha is suffering with a new batch of teeth coming through at the moment and has become reluctant to end feeds and I'm getting bitten as I try to unlatch her. DS is 2 1/2 years old so letting her comfort feed all day is not an option and I'm worried I'll end up loosing a finger/nipple/both if I'm not careful! It's been over a week now and I'm getting a bit sore and grumpy.

Help!

Little finger between nipple and baby's tongue and ease off

Have you tried pushing her into your breast? It's a technique to stop them biting you, but it should work to unlatch as well. I'm assuming you've tried the little finger in the corner of the mouth trick?

Can you feed her in a sling, if she wants to feed all the time. Leaves you a little freer to deal with ds? My ds is 17 mo and getting molars at the moment, and sometimes I put him in my Connecta sling (a kind of mei tie), sitting up but looser than normal, so he can feed to his heart's content. As he's getting heavy it's not as easy as when he was younger, but needs must sometimes, no?

I breastfed my baby to just over 1 year by which point he had most of his teeth through. I was proudly telling someone how despite this he had never bitten me and all was well - a minute later he had chomped down on my nipple - blood everywhere!

The best advice I was given was not to react overtly (no shouting, yelping etc) and to calmly unlatch in the usual way (little finger breaking the seal of his mouth) and stop feeding for a bit. I think I did this 2 or 3 times and it did the trick - certainly never got bitten again.

• oh and used a dummy if I thought he was using me to teeth rather than feed. So he only actively fed from me if hungry, nothing half hearted. Tricky though if your baby won't take a dummy.

I guess all babies are different, but worked for us and was kind to my baby!

Good luck!

I use the finger in the corner of the mouth when he's awake and the "smothering" trick at night (pushing him onto the breast).

Pull baby in towards you and stick your finger in side of mouth at same time.

Thanks ladies. Yep, I currently use the little finger trick but as soon as she realises what I'm up to she starts snapping away. As soon as the latch is broken she bites down. If I plan the attack well and act fast I escape largely unscathed, however the rest of the time I end up with her top teeth in my finger and bottom teeth in my nipple :( She doesn't bite at any other point during feeds.

I do sometimes resort to the ring sling but it's not ideal and not fair on my son. I did offer her a dummy some time back which was treated with distain and contempt, but I might give it another go tomorrow. I don't mind her comfort feeding I just want to limit the time per 'session'. Most the time she's not sucking at all, although if I ask her if she's finished she'll give a few token gulps.

The push baby to breast 'smother' technique sounds excellent and I will definately give it a go. Keep your fingers crossed for me!

I should probably clarify, she has a very FULL mouth of teeth going all the way round the sides - hence the problem with the little finger in mouth trick. She's had the front teeth since 3 months old but the side ones are fairly new and new ones are popping out all the time.

You could also try tickling (if she's ticklish of course!) or smooshing her into your breast so her nose is covered - just for a second though to see if either of those work at getting her to release you.

When she is off telling them 'no biting' and putting them on the floor/away from your lap and pointedly not looking at them can help reinforce the idea it's not nice behaviour.

You could also try saying to her before a feed something like 'If you bite me, no milkies/bububs/whatever you call bfing. Do you want to milkies?' If she bites reiterate no biting and remove her.

If the biting is due to teething pain would teething gel/cold teether before bfing help?

Don't let the number of teeth in the mouth worry you too much wrt the finger technique :) I used it with my lo well past second birthday, molars and everything