On the verge of giving up!

[Bexmathews]

My dd is 20 weeks old and had been breast fed since birth including expressed milk in a bottle. I exclusively expressed for a couple of weeks in the early days but managed to get her back on the breast eventually so she quite happy switching from bottle and breast. We have just got through 2 teeth coming through but i think there are more on the way! I have been bitten 10 times today and she is refusing bottle! I am feeling really down at the moment and have just bought a carton of actimil (not that she is drinking from bottle ) don't really know what I'm asking to be honest , anyone with hints to stop them biting?

Biting is a real nuisance....but it does not last.
Things that help:

• taking her off immediately she bites, and saying 'no' firmly and quietly
• taking her right off and placing her on the floor in front of you, saying the same thing
• encouraging the use of a teether toy before feeding

More info here:

www.nct.org.uk/parenting/breastfeeding-baby-who-bites

You have achieved such a lot overcoming those early struggles to bf, so it's obv an important part of what you want to do/be as a mother - would be a shame to stop now :(

Thanks for your reply. Have managed to feed her tonight without any bites but am so anxious every time I feed her now. I have a bit of a supply of expressed milk so might use that until these teeth are through :)

The problem is that your supply may drop and you are not addressing the teeth issue. I would try and persevere and do it one day at a time. However, it is not worth making yourself miserable so if you do give up, congratulate yourself on getting this far!

Bex, I am going through the same thing with my 8mo (although thankfully he's happy with a bottle). We're down to breastfeeding only at 6.30am and 6.30pm and he often bites me. I know you're supposed to take them off, say no etc, but when he's on the verge of falling asleep I don't want to wake him up so I just gently take him off and switch sides. I don't feel ready yet to give up bf (I set myself a goal of a year, and when I go back to work I think the long cuddly bedtime feed will be good for both of us) but equally I don't want to be howling in pain twice a day and potentially doing damage to my poor boobies. Although rationally I know that DS will be absolutely fine if I switch fully to ff, and 8 months is pretty good considering the issues we've had - tongue tie, recurrent thrush, low supply - there's a part of me that feels I would be failing when so many other mums survive teeth. And in the morning it's soooo much easier bringing him into bed than going downstairs for a bottle...

So I don't really have any advice other than you're not alone and, as superram says, congratulations on making it this far no matter what happens next.