8 month old's teeth rubbing against nipple...ouch!

[diggingforvictory]

My 8 month old has two bottom teeth almost fully grown now. They rub against my nipple when she feeds, leaving me with cuts that open up and bleed at each feed. It feels like someone is stabbing me for the first few minutes of feeding. She isn't biting me, and her latch seems to be good. It never hurt until her teeth grew.

Will my nipples just harden up to cope with the teeth, or is there something I can do? I really want to continue breastfeeding if possible.

If that is happening the latch isn't good! I am wincing on your behalf! Ouch.

I fed Dd until she was two and occaisonally she would get some teeth that would graze me, what I had to do was take it right back to basics like when they are a new baby and relearn the latch. It could take awhile but you shouldn't be having cuts or bleeding or any pain as I am sure you know. For me it sometimes took up to a week for us to get a good latch back. I would also see if you have any local BF support to help you.
Good Luck, I have been there and pulled through and so can you :)

Thanks Purple, I'll go along to one of the groups. I'd assumed they were just for new mums, but hopefully someone will be able to help me.

Ditto Purple - mine has top and bottom knashers now, and they don't cut in. If I even feel them, then I get him to re-attach himself.

Not that that stops him playfully nipping when he gets bored towards the end of a feed.......

Deffantly not just for new mum's, weaning, teeth, going back to work or stopping feeding are all topics we cover. Not just new babies.

Does sound like a latch issue as they shouldn't be rubbing and courseing pain like that.

Good luck.

Thanks for this thread - just what I needed to see right now. My DS 9months has 3 bottom teeth and 4 top teeth. Breastfeeding him is very painful almost every time!

I was managing while it was just the bottom teeth, and even with just one top tooth... but not anymore.

Sounds like he's using you as a teething ring! My LO did this a couple of times when teething (her first teeth were the top ones not the bottom). I think she was just experimenting, but I had to stop her as it was extremely painful, she would clamp down really hard at the start of each feed so I just said No" and "Be gentle" taking her off and starting again each time. She soon stopped doing it. I had to keep a sharp eye on her but I could usually tell when she was just about to clamp down hard so I could often prevent it happening, Having a distraction like a toy to play with whilst feeding helped too - but mine was nearly 7MO when her first couple of teeth came through so don't know if the same could work at 3 months but you could try that too.