10 month old EBF baby starting to bite - OUCH!

[LCRLCR]

Ouch ouch ouch - for the past few days DD has been biting really really hard and it hurts! I am now getting v tense before a feed worried she might slice my nipple off. I notice she does it when she's not too keen to feed but unless I offer, she rarely asks for a feed. Today she fed when she woke up this morning and two abandoned attempts since - one short BF in a whole day can't be enough for a 10 month old? She has water from her sippy cup during the day but might she get dehydrated? Is she self-weaning? I don't want BFing to end - help! She is a total bottle refusnik btw - has had 2 bottom teeth from 6 months, top teeth appear to be coming through

I had a period like this around the same age with DD2. She bit me a few times and I would say a firm 'no', take her off the nipple and put her down on the floor. Unfortunately she began to refuse feeds altogether so the next time it happened I tried hard not to react. She stopped doing it within a day or two anyway and went on BFing until her third birthday.

I had been convinced she was self weaning and was very relieved when she carried on after all.

I hope you have a similar experience.

It is unlikely that a baby will self wean before 12 months. It could just be the pain of her teething, have you tried Calpol? Have you called one of the Helplines? When DC1 was 7 months he started biting and I called one of the helplines and the biting stopped in no time.

There is some info on Kellymom too

My 9 month old is biting too. She clamped her teeth together on Saturday night and I struggled with her for about 30 seconds, thought I was going to pass out because of the pain! She's done it several times since, so I'm anxious like you about feeding, particularly when out and about, but am even reluctant to offer to feed her at home at the 'normal times' that she would have fed. I don't want to stop, but it seems like she's opting to stop herself. I don't know what to do when she wakes up at night crying, as I've always just fed her and she's gone straight back to sleep...