biting..... and now dreading each feed

[mamawharton]

my dd is 7 months with 3 teeth and has started to bite!! she bit the left side and broke the skin and is very sore when i feed and even worse when i express!! today she bit the same side again and later also the right. i now have 2 very sore boobs and dreading each feed and i can't bring myself to express. for the first time in 7 months i feel like stopping bf altogether. is there anything i can put on my nipples? and how do i get her to stop? i have stopped the feed each time and told her no but enough is enough :-(

I stuck to taking DS off and saying no, and not letting him back on for five minutes. Hope someone else comes along soon or i'll have to dust off the BF memories lol.. i successfully ExtBF until DS was 3 :)

Should say went on to** sorry

It shall pass, it's just a stage.

Although that is true it's no help to you at all!!

I've found that DS is most bitey when teething, slathering teething gel on before a feed seems to help. Also as Things suggest taking her off when she bites, then continuing the feed afterwards. I also found that DS was more likely to bite if he wasn't really hungry, or at the end of a feed when he just wanted to faff around for a bit.

I had this problem with ds2 when he was teething at 8 months and ended up giving up because he hung on with his teeth and it was excruciating .

You could try applying teething gel before every feed and taking her off with a stern No! if she bites, perhaps putting her off your lap altogether so she understands if she bites the feed is over and so are the cuddles.

My dsis did this when her dd bit at 8 months, and she stopped doing it and bf until she was 2, so the habit can be broken. I sympathise so much, when ds2 bit it was awful.

DD did this a few times, it bloody hurts! The first time I was in shock and yanked her off and made her cry. After that, each time I pulled her off, said "NO" loudly and firmly right in her face, then put her in her cot and walked out. Gave it five minutes before I would go back in and pick her up to start nursing again - I think she bit about six or seven times in total before she figured out it wasn't a good idea.

Good luck, it's a horrible stage but hopefully she will get out of it quickly.

I got taught that if she bites to push her head int my breast and she let go, and I put her down obviously don't smother baby tho x

Oh yes i also tried that, pushing into the breast.. it worked to stop the pain but didn't 100% stop the biting..and i didn't feel comfortable doing it.. i got to the point i could intervene before the bite came and once you feel the tongue sliding back ready for the bite i'd say 'no biting' then either remove baby if she carries on and bites, or bring her closer to you squishing her face a little whichever one works for you both.

It comes in handy in the future too when they start that biting other kids stage...

thanks everyone. really appreciate your comments. its good to hear it doesn't last and fingers crossed it stops before she does anymore damage x

No problem we all know how you feel ! But you've done so well up to now lots of people give up because they don't have the support.. How are things today?

my left boob is still sore but im less stressed when feeding time is approaching. dd did start to bite on the other side this evening so i took her off!! hopefully she learns soon x

Hope so :) try the bringing her towards you thing too if the taking her off doesn't work.

Have you made 100% sure there's no thrush or TT

Glad you're less anxious they pick up on that xx