Ouch...biting

[MrsPeggyPatch]

Grateful for any advice- ds (24 weeks) now has two lovely, very sharp bottom teeth. In the past week he has bitten me three times, twice breaking the skin on the same side.

I am now terrified of feeding, and have a very sore left side. I don't really want to stop breast feeding but don't know how to teach him not to bite, he seems so young and I can't keep on getting bitten.

Any solutions to stop the biting? Also is there any device I am use to protect myself whilst he learns?

I'm coating the bit side in lansinoh and this afternoon expressed off it. Ds has never taken a bottle but he seemed happy to have milk in a sippy cup- is this ok rather than a bottle? the flow seemed quite quick. I've been meaning to introduce a bottle/cup for a while as I've never left him for more than an hour and need to leave him for an afternoon at the end of April.

Sorry bit of a jumbled post!

You poor thing. I went through this with my children as well. I found that the biting often happened after they had been feeding from the breast for a while and were perhaps getting a bit bored. When they are really hungry they just want to feed properly. Every time the baby bit me. I would say firmly "No biting!" and immediately stop the feed, cover up and start doing something else. This would usually result in a wailing child, but they did get the message fairly quickly and I think that I only got a couple of nips from each child.

Poor you

I had this around about 24/25 weeks with my DTD. She's a bottle refuser, I was in agony and I spent a lot of times in tears.

Luckily (I think!) it coincided with a terrible sleeping period when she would feed at least three times at night. For one I enjoyed the night feeds as she was hungry and sleepy and just latched on and fed beautifully.

During the day I did take her off if she nipped and said 'no' but I don't know how much they understand at this stage.

But just to say that this stage passed. I do get an occasional nip but I think once they're used with their teeth they go back to feeding teeth-free .

Thank you, it's good to know that it will hopefully pass! So at bite free last night and this morning. Will keep persevering with 'No'

Sleep a bit everywhere but I think I probably fed a bit less than normal yesterday day. We're normally up 3 times a night anyway but Teds you are right I did relax a bit more in the night feeds as I knew he was sleepier!

A plus side is it is making me look at our latch again as I noticed he bit right on the nipple- i think we'd got a bit lazy with it. Going back to basics and getting a good load of boob in his mouth, working on the theory that with his mouth very full he may not bite as much and if he does it is hopefully not on the v sensitive nipple!

Thanks again.