Does biting spell the end of BFing?

[PrimaBallerina]

I realise there's a similar thread running but I can't find my answer there as the responses all say their DCs either don't bite or that it doesn't hurt.

Well my DS does bite and it hurts!!

He is 7.5 months and pretty much EBF still as the BLW is moving slowly. This week he's cut his first tooth at the bottom and it is VERY sharp - like a serrated razor blade.

The last couple of days he's given me a nip at the end of most feeds. The last one was particularly painful (I checked for blood!) as he held on for a few seconds. Each time I've taken him straight off and told him 'No' but I think he's too young to even understand what he's done, let alone that I'm not happy about it. I also haven't been able to predict him doing it - he's gone straight from feeding to biting without warning - so I'm not sure how I could prevent it happening again.

I was planning to keep BFing until he's at least one and I know I'd be sad to stop as I've grown to love it. That said I can also see some positives to him having a bottle. He'll be off to nursery next year and I'm not very good at expressing so I'd be looking for him to get used to a bit of formula during the daytime on nursery days.

Has anyone been through this? Sorry it's ended up being a bit long. I'd really welcome any advice.

Hi Prima,

I had a similar thing at a similar age, although ds only bit me at the before bed feed of memory serves me right (4 years ago). So, milk withdrawn and a no, I think it carried on for about 5 days and then never again!

He continued to breastfeed until 13 months, and was also blw'ed.

Hope that can give you some hope.

My DS 8months has 4 teeth. Each new tooth results in around 24-48hours of nips and bites. I wont lie it hurts. In fact the first tooth resulted in me in tears saying "i don't want to stop but this hurts"

with no scientific knowledge and a random sample of one (me) I say it's like he has to relearn the latch. Once that has happened the biting stops.

Now if i could get him to stop tweaking the other nipple when he feeds.

I got nipped a few times when my two were cutting their first teeth (around 6 months), but carried on feeding them both until they were over a year without getting savaged too much (no scars!). I think they soon learn from the way you flinch that biting is not a good idea.

My daughter got her first two teeth at almost 11 months and started biting sometimes. They were her top two front teeth (HV told me that was impossible ) and they also scratched along my areola a bit, which was quite sore. I kept thinking about attempting to do something about it, but she just stopped. It wasn't the 1-2 days often quoted on here-more like 3-4 weeks. She does still do it occasionally at 14 months when she's tired or messing around, but it's not worth me bothering about.

In relation to going to nursery, my daughter started at 12 months full time and I was really worried about not feeding her in the day because she was still feeding 8-10 times a day. I went in to feed her at lunch time for the first week and then tried one day of not feeding her to see how she was (with strict instructions to call me if she was obviously needing to be fed). Since then she's never once been breastfed at nursery and drinks water and sometimes whole milk from a cup. My point being that if you choose to carry on breastfeeding, you don't necessarily need to worry about your son having bottles/formula at nursery.

DS1 did this. I was told that babies bite in the same way that they will chew on a teething ring, to try to relieve the pain, not because they have gone off bmilk or any such.

In fact, when the baby latches on, the tongue covers the bottom teeth, so the biting is something which they tend to do once they have finished feeding.

DS1 stopped after a few days each time, and I carried on nursing until he was 2+. It was only whilst those front teeth were coming through that he ever bit (all except one very deliberate experiment when he was 15 months-ish and I had made him wait for a feed! Agh!)

Be prepared to get him off quick at the end of a feed (slip little finger in between the aureole and his lips to break the suction seal) and best of luck

My DD does do this from time to time when she is teething. She has just turned one. She went through a terrible phase of doing it at 11 months but seems to be through it now. I tried to not react, say no, put my finger in her mouth to get her off etc. She just used to smile at me and laugh so I guess she just didn't understand. I stuck with it and she just stopped doing it.

She now finished her feed, holds my nipple in a pincer grip (ouch) and coos at it lovingly!

Regarding bottle: she has never taken a bottle at nursery - has always refused to. She does take cows milk and water from a sippy cup though and she seems to be doing fine. No chance of her stopping bfeeding any time soon though by the look of it!

Biting during a feed- No and gently place baby in safe place on the floor. No eye contact. Pick up baby and continue feeding before they get upset. They very quickly get the message.
Biting at the end of the feed - DD2 nipped very hard and quite instinctively as she dozed off. I guess she felt her head falling back and tried to hold on. The trick is to learn the pattern of sucks that mean baby is loosing interest and follow notquitegrown ups advice.
If your baby likes BFing they will learn not to bite and how to carry one round nursery.
DD2 learnt how to carry on through school and getting adult teeth, which isn't supposed to be possible

Thanks everyone, you've given me some hope. I've taken him off as soon as I sensed he'd finished today and so far so good

Thanks for that, I seem to have read a lot of depressing threads tonight.
I'll go to bed before I find any more.