Biting to the point of drawing blood

[hannahsaunt]

Ds3, 9.5mo, exclusively breast fed and down to two feeds per day (morning and night). Over the last few weeks he's developed a nasty biting habit which initially I put down to teething and it did settle but has come back with a vengeance. I did then think that it was because he was at the end of his feed and it was his way of messing around so stopped as soon as he started. Now he's feeding for approx 5 mins on one side before biting and tonight he drew blood it was so hard . I am in agony but deeply reluctant to stop feeding befcre 12 months, not least because I have a dairy allergy. Is he getting enough in the 5 minutes bearing in mind his only other sources of milk are in his morning porridge and lunch yougurts (both soya) or do I need to contemplate the failure of bottles?

TIA

does he bite elsewhere? it could be teething again, my son bites but thankfully not when hes feeding...but he does bite more when hes just started teething again..how many teeth does he have so far?

He has four teeth and no others obvious yet (fourth has just appeared this weeek). He doesn't bite anything else with quite the same vigour! I was very cross this morning and he nuzzled around again to latch on and then bit me again . Trying hard not to feel like the bleeding was the last straw. Thankfully, dh is out at cricket with ds1 or he would be nagging me to stop.

I haven't yet experienced the biting with teeth which sounds horrible. But DD has been getting into practice when teething (without teeth yet). I had a bf counsellor when DD was 8 weeks old (another story) but one thing stuck in my mind. She said if they do anything ever when feeding that isn't 'right' (i.e. latch isn't right, they are fidgeting, they are hurting you etc, essentially, anything that makes bf not what it should be) then immediately say 'no', latch off, then after a few seconds, calmly latch on again. And then keep doing it. I did this when DD was 5mths old and starting to 'bite' and wouldn't stay still and would try to latch off away with the nipple still in her mouth - ouch. So I did this, and after a few feeds she started to get the message. But it took a week in all honesty before she stopped doing it. Now, she only gets distracted when there is actually something to distract her like a loud noise etc. And only very occasionally will she bite, but that is generally when she has fallen asleep and suddenly woken to find a nipple still in her mouth! Hope that helps and good luck.

Have tried the 'no' thing. Originally it made him laugh. Tonight he cried . Then bit again .

I can sympathise with the biting, though my DS (13mo) has never drawn blood thank goodness. He sometimes messes around and has a little nip (as it were) but it seems like its when he is not really hungry and he is just playing around. I find he feeds better when he is tired/hungry (generally the bedtime feed) as he seems to concentrate more on getting the milk and less on playing! If he bites me I say NO in a firm voice (or OUCH - but that tends to make him laugh and he thinks its a game and goes in for the kill again!) and put the boob away. I think the message gets through to him that way.

His latest trick now though is twiddling my other nipple while he is feeding like he is trying to tune in Radio 4 or something. This can be pretty painful too! Its all good fun eh?!

I mentioned to a friend once that my DS only spent a few minutes on the breast and I was worried he wasn't getting enough milk, but they pointed out their baby could drain a bottle in about 5 mins. They are quite efficient at feeding as they get older and he's probably getting quite a lot of milk in 5 mins.

That's good to know re: 5 min bottle draining. Maybe it is enough then and he's just found an effective way of communicating that he really, really, really doesn't want any more.

DS (9 months old) started biting me really hard a few weeks ago, to the point of drawing blood too. He's had teeth for ages, first came through at 5months and we've bf for ages afterwards with no problems, so I was very surprised when he started biting. I tried all the calm suggestions they give on kellymom and other websites, but to no avail. If I told him off he'd laugh, if I pulled him closer he'd bite harder. I tried taking him off the breast and plonking him unceremoniously on the floor facing away from me, but he'd take that as "it's play time, off you go!" One day he just stopped, I don't know what it was, why he stopped or how I did it, but he did. I don't think with my ds his biting was linked to teething because he's had at least four more teeth come through since. That probably doesn't help you but I wanted to offer some glimmer of hope that it may just go away of it's own accord.

I'm sure he would soon let you know anyway if he was still hungry! Good luck - I hope there are no more bloody incidents!

DD2 feeds really quickly, she can quite easily finish in under 5 mins.. She too bites when bored and in her case it seems to have started with weaning.. Shes only got bottom teeth at the mo, I hope she grows out of it by the time her top ones come in!

Will grin and bear it then . Good to have the reassurance!

I was thinking last night as I fed ds, one thing I also used to do was watch him like a hawk (no more watching this morning while bfing - sigh) because it was really obvious when he was about to bite, he would slide off the nipple a bit. When I could see he was about to do it I would take him off. That really helped because I think he thought it was a funny game to make mummy yelp and shout no! It broke the cycle I think. Good luck