I think he is tring to pull my nipple off........

[HeatherAndSon]

Hi all - I was wondering if anyone might have some tactics to help me deal with my ferocious 3 week old milk monster.

He is an excellent feeder, but tends to be a bit too zealous at times. More often than not he spends at least half the feed painfully pulling at my nipple as he throws his head about (in happiness at being fed, as he makes his horse noises). And when he tries to detatch himself, he almost always does it by pulling back with this gums firmly wrapped on my poor nipples. OUCH!

Sometimes I can barely stop myself from crying out in pain!! Any suggestions would be appreciated as I'm beginning to approach each feed VERY nervously indeed...

cheers.

You'd never guess tiny babies could be so savage could you?! He'll probably settle down a bit soon anyway, the first 6 weeks are fraught with frenzies, but try pulling him in closer to you and at the first sign of latching-off ease your little finger into the side of his mouth to release the suction.

It's good theory but I'm afraid I suffered as you did for awhile with my 2nd baby. And I did cry! Fortunately, it soon improved!

Might have bumped some better advice though...

I've no advice to offer I'm afraid as I never did solve this one, but I just wanted to sympathise. Reading your post brought tears to my eyes (!) in remembrance of those days. IME it got better for a while, but then got a lot worse again when DS started getting distracted during his feed and looking around with nipple still in mouth, or suddenly pulling off to look at something interesting. Ouch! The only consolation is that your nipples should be pretty hardy by then so it's not agonising like in the early days.

it is quite often wind when they do this. they are violently angry when detached but once a burp appears they are far calmer when put back on. HTH.