breastfeeding to expressing - support please!

[aggiemum]

dear all

I feel down. I was getting on beautifully with breastfeeding, both me and the little one loved it, no problems at all. been going quite happily until 3 weeks ago when he gets teeth (he's 5 months now). first he started nipping, then biting me - really painful. had to stop and nearly put him on formula, but after episodes of sickness after 2 tries with formula, decided to go back to breast but expressing instead. I am now knackered. BF was a breeze compared to expressing, I;m having to do it at least every 4 hours for an hour each time. My HV says I can try SMA LF, but I really want to BF or at least keep him on breastmilk via expressing but it is blo*dy hard work - I just want to BF properly again!! feel really disappointed that I may have given my boy his last "proper" breastfeed and the next 6-8 months will be spent expressing - please does anyone have any advice or help - I feel gutted x

Dd started biting and tbh I sorted the biting rather than express.

Everytime he bites take him off the breast and put him down. Or shout loudly or some suggest push him into your breast so that he stops biting.

That's whta you need to sort out tbh.

Contact the association of breastfeeding mothers or la leche (google them) for a local group- if you want to stick at it then it really is possible

does it really work shouting or putting them down? I keep thinking he is too small to understand, but I'm prepared to try anything. I also didn't think about my breastfeeding support group, thanks for that, will go and see them on monday, see if they can help

deffo don't give up.

Different things will work for different babies.

Shouting in pain will often shock them to not do it again. dd bit me a few times and i screamed in pain and then put her down. Obsviously the shouting wasn't voluntary as it blinmkin well hurts.

Deffo go to support group- that's what they're there for- all due respect to your hv- she's not an expert on bfing so will not really be able to advise (unless she is an expert lol)

With DD1 if she bit me I latched her off and relatched her, if she did it again the feed was over, she soon got the message TBH the biting happened at the end of a feed when she was bored.

DD2 has only bitten me once so far.

I am BF'ing my 5mo and she started tugging and biting down a couple of weeks ago and I developed Mastitis - but we got through it I took the antibiotics cont. bf'ing whilst swearing and clenching teeth but we are now back on an even keel. I took her off everytime she bit and she seems to have settled down again now. I am prepared to go through phases of dd being a bit bitey as I went through it all with ds (including the biting and mastitis at 5m) and ended up feeding him till he was 22m (throughout pregnancy with dd). It is a phase that will pass but it is painful so it could be an option to try BF'ing again - ime babies get used to the teething sensation and stop using you as a teether and bm acts as a pain relief for them.

thanks guys, I really appreciate all your thoughts and comments. I haqdn't thought of nipple shields, think I will give them a go. also, have now decied to buy an electric double breastpump as am back to work 3 days a week in 3 weeks time, so need to be able to express more anyway, i was just really looking forward to BF'inf morning and night as our time together. so, I will persevere. I will try the shouting and stopping thing and keep re-latching after each bite - fingers crossed he stops. BF'ing is such a lovely thing to do, I would quite happily keep going until my little one was a year or more if he wasn't biting.

you guys have been really reassuring - thank you so much xx

Kellymom on biting and teeth....if you ahven't read it yet:)