Older baby - bitey breastfeeding

[Awfulknitter]

My daughter is 9 months old, and in the last few days breastefeeding has become quite painful. She's not quite biting me - it's more like she's not opening her mouth very wide, so she's not getting enough boob into her mouth. Her four little pointy teeth are wearing very sore patches!

I've tried all the common advice you come across - mainly taking her off the breast, telling her as calmly as possible that it hurts, and that goes down like a lead balloon! Nipple shields were also as popular as broccoli.

I've also tried nursing in the rugby ball hold and lying down, and that seemed to be working a bit until tonight, when she seemed to have figured how to close her mouth up again.

So I'm looking for any more ideas. Ideas? Please?

Oh dear, Feeding lying down was my only suggestion. Have you called one of the Bfing Helplines? They helped me when DC1 was doing a similar thing at 7 months and I was thinking of giving up. It was a very long time ago now though

This on Kellymom might be helpful too.

Ta! I'd found Kellymom when we first had a little biting issue (it only happened three or four times, but there was blood!) - I revisited and there was some advice that I'd forgotten.

I sent the husband along while I was at work to visit the council's Infant Feeding Team - they're super-supportive lovely people, but they didn't have anything new to suggest. :(

Fortunately, most of today's feeds were on the better end of the spectrum. The bedtime feed was the worst, so I think the problem gets worse as daughter falls asleep. I reckon I'll keep on trying reclining/lying down feeds, as that seems to be the most helpful. Now I just need to work out how to stop myself falling asleep during them...

It might be totally irrelevant if she's not biting as such but my DD started nibbling a bit at around the same age. For her, it was teething. I used to rub some teething granules on her gums before she fed and that seemed to help a bit. Might be worth a try? X

I'd second teething gel/granules. Got to be worth a try

Have a Google of biological nurturing too.

My first thought was "What's biological nursing? What's the alternative? Robot nurturing?" :) But I've had a read and some of the points seems sensible.

We tried popping some teething gel on before this evening's bedtime feed. Breast 1 was great, just about back to feeling like a normal feed. Then breast 2 got horribly chewed! Oh well, I'll keep on trying things until things get better or we have to give up - I think that'll be a while yet.

"What's biological nursing? What's the alternative? Robot nurturing?"

It's a shame the teething gel only worked for one side. If you think it may be teething related, have you tried her with a dose of ibruprofen? It's much better for dental pain than paracetamol. Another thing to try is giving her a cold, clean wet flannel to chew on, a frozen banana, chunks of cucumber or even a bm ice lolly.

Ooo, interesting about ibuprofen being better for teething pain. (I find it's much better for my migraines than paracetamol too.) I'm off to Boots tomorrow! Thanks for that. Why isn't this useful information in the parenting packs? I've read 47 times not to give daughter coke (duh), but never that.

I tried the wet flannel when she was first teething. She didn't like it nearly as much as a muslin! I was thinking about trying again with it soaked in chammomile tea, as so many teething products seem to have chammomile as their main ingredient.

On the positive side, tonight's feed was much better, I didn't say ouch once! On the negative side, it's because daughter was dog tired! The poor thing nearly nodded off in her high chair before eating hardly anything.

I don't know why they don't tell you that either. A maxillo facial surgeon told me, and from my experience it is sooo much better.

And as fir the coke, I've never seen that in a baby book but a few years ago we went to Thomas Land. I say at least 2 families fill up baby bottles with it. My face was very much like this