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Infant feeding

Get advice and support with infant feeding from other users here.

Please help - biting baby

5 replies

Canalside · 13/08/2013 19:51

If anyone can help at all, I'd be very grateful, i am at the end of my tether with this at the moment!

My DD is 7.5 months and is mix-fed. Our breastfeeding relationship has always been a little fraught - in the beginning she was tongue-tied, then at 12 weeks just as I decided enough was enough, it got easier. We got through distractibility, scratching, flailing, random days of not feeding, but recently the biting has started. It started about 2 months or so ago. Last time she bit me lots was during her lunchtime feed about a month ago. It kept happening and she was a pain in the arse to try to feed so I just dropped that feed. Problem solved, till not long ago.

She's on 3 meals a day, eats well, and is breastfed first thing and before bed. She has 2 7oz bottles during the day, which she takes varying amounts of. She's going to nursery soon, and I hate expressing and am rubbish at it so she's getting formula.

She now spends the entirety of the bedtime feed biting me, and I don't know how to stop it. I've tried taking her off, putting her on the floor, saying 'no' sharply, and bringing her into the boob so she can't breathe. All of which she laughs at and just does it again. I don't mind her being happy, obviously, but I wish she'd find something else amusing.

I would happily stop breastfeeding. I'm not attached to it really, I wanted to continue giving her some milk, but it's not the end of the world to stop. The problem is that we're going away at the weekend for a fortnight, long haul, and I wanted to still be breastfeeding then to help with the inevitable jet lag/night feeds etc. Also, I really didn't want to be stopping etc there as I didn't want to deal with pain/engorgement/possible mastitis in a country where the health system is not the greatest. and I won't have any bras that fit properly But I can't go on like this, when nothing seems to work, and I end up losing my temper and getting stroppy with her. It's not fair on either of us.

Can anyone help? Please?

OP posts:
JiltedJohnsJulie · 13/08/2013 21:44

Can understand why its not convenient to stop at the moment, even if that s what you are aiming at. I can totally understand your attitude to bfing too having had a tt baby myself. Really well done for continuing for so longSmile

Have you read the information on kellymom?

CreatureRetorts · 13/08/2013 21:48

Is she biting at the end of a feed? If so, firm no and don't feed anymore. She might be finished.

She also might be teething...mine would bite or even do odd pulling when the teeth were emerging.

Canalside · 14/08/2013 07:50

Thanks, both. She is probably teething, though none have appeared yet. She has done it just at the end before but this is all through the feed, sometimes even before let down. She'll suck for a bit and then clamp down. Then sometimes want more.

My mum suggested my supply was low, but I don't know why that would be, on the basis of supply and demand. Yes my boobs are much softer but at nearly 8 months I don't think that's unusual. And loads of people feed twice a day for ages.

In some ways I feel a bit sad, that I've not really liked breastfeeding, or had that magical experience some people seem to have. It's just been a series of challenges really. I'd like to overcome this one but not sure how to.

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CreatureRetorts · 14/08/2013 12:11

Have your periods returned yet? That's another possibility - supply does dip at certain points in your cycle (ie once your periods are back). Both of mine would fuss a lot just before my period was due.

Canalside · 14/08/2013 12:26

Hmmm... yes they have returned, and now that you mention it, it is due now...

maybe it's a combination of teething and that? Let's hope so!

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