Biting. I can't take the pain anymore, going to have to stop.

[Mysaucepansdontmatch]

Hi, can someone comfort me? I have decided this morning im going to have to stop bf dd2 who is 7mo. She was 7 weeks prem so is prob more like 5mo corrected. She is ebf and a bottle refuser. She has started to wean onto finger food and yogurt and fruit purées.

She has had a tooth through for around six weeks! But now, with other teeth coming through, her biting urge has become too strong and I'm in agony. She just doesn't let go. My poor breasts are bruised around the nipple, cut and bitten. I'm heartbroken for her but I just can't take the pain! I must say I am so proud of us for getting this far, dd1 only bf for three months and dd2 struggled to establish as she was tube fed due to being so prem at the beginning.

We are still cosleeping so I think the main challenge will be stopping her feeding in the night. Any tips on this? Should I take a bottle to bed with us? She won't take them usually but on the rare occasions she has taken one off her dad she likes the milk really warm. Help!

I know you're saying you have to stop, but it doesn't sound as if you want to ...

When she bites, what happens if you press her into your breast? (No, she won't be able to breathe. Briefly. She will let go!) This often breaks babies of the biting habit ...

I'm usually in too much pain to think!

I really don't want to stop.

Will try that but I'm scared to let her near my boobs!

I really feel for you. I 'gave up BFing' several times at 7mo because of biting, then decided that it was easier to latch DS on and go back to sleep than to get up and do bottles :o He eventually weaned off the breast at about 16 months.

To stop him biting, I unlatched him at the first sign of a cheeky nip and put him on the floor. He hated that and wailed loudly while I counted to 20 before picking him up again. Once I got ruthless and consistent with that approach, he stopped.

If you really want to give up then my lazy advice would be to either express one feed or buy cartons of formula and a bottle warmer to plug into a socket in your bedroom. That way you don't have to get up, boil kettle, mix formula, cool it down again etc.

My son used to bite so hard he drew blood. I also used the method of pushing him slightly into the breast - I only had to do it once of twice and he never bit me again!

you have my utmost sympathy, I have an 8 month biter!

At the moment I'm covered in bruises all over my upper arms where he's snuggled against me then bitten!

I've found that he only bites when feeding when he hits the faffy stage i.e not hungry, had enough, etc... I try to pre-empt this and as soon as I feel him shifting I unlatch him and go down the distraction technique route.

It seems to be worse when he's got another tooth coming through, he got his first at 18 weeks but the biting got bad around the 6 month mark when he had 3 coming at once.

Another thing that we've had mixed success with is applying some teething gel before a feed.

Just tried again she she bit down really hard!

:(

Did you try pressing her into the breast? Putting her down may make her stop, too ...

If you call one of the hotlines, and talk it through, you may find a solution that works for you (which may be giving up, and may not).

Is she biting at the start, or when things slow down? Annoyingly, if you are tense, then letdown may be slow, which may make her bite.

I put her to the breast and she bit straight away. She doesn't seem bothered I have put her down, but then she is in cheerful mode as just woken up.

AKMD has it exactly, place baby somewhere safe on the floor. Totally coldly no eye contact and don't speak after an initial no at being bitten.

It's the withdrawal of warmth and food that matters, a tiny baby won't understand words.

With DD2 I only had to put her down for the briefest moment, picking her up just as she opened her mouth to yell.

Very soon she got the idea. Soon she only bit as she fell a sleep. That on is easy you learn to feel the head flop and insert a finger quick to break the latch. That way you don't get chomped by baby realising they are slipping off.

Tiny bit of practice and you can leave baby asleep and nipple intact.

It does get better, I fed DD2 until she had a full set of milk teach and she didn't bite when she was older.

Partly I think toddlers understand it hurts. Also an older child controls it's own fed position far more and butting doesn't get more milk.

But she is only seven months! She doesn't understand it hurts and I'm in too much pain to contemplate any more teeth arriving! I suppose I could just wait until she is starving hungry and then try the put down method...

no she won't understand out hurts you but she will understand that biting doesn't get what she wants if you put her down and walk away every time. I had to be persistent with DS as he did it a lot earlier then my first did but it did work

That is another idea they can sometimes do out if not that hungry DS would often do it towards then end of the feed to. So i had to watch out and make sure i took him of before he got to that point.

7mo DS knew that it hurt me. He used to bite and then look up at me and smile

Other things that stopped him pinching/hair pulling/hitting/biting:

• shrieking loudly and putting him down
• pretending to cry

He hated both of those and soon stopped. At 2 and a bit he doesn't seem too traumatised.