Ow, owie, OUCH! Nipple trauma and tooth-aversion!

[wastingmyeducation]

DS, 26weeks, has always sucked the nipple in rather than latching properly a lot of the time, and now pulls off quite violently to look around.
Now there's a pointy sharp tooth emerging. It's sore.
I'm already ordering a breastfeeding necklace to stop him grabbing handfuls of boob and scratching with his pointy sharp fingers. What am I going to do about him grinding my nipples down?

xx

It's a boy thing! DS will grab at nipple with hands, twist it and then grin

Ouch! Bump!

xx

Nobody got any suggestions?

xx

It's difficult when there's a tooth coming through. They're sore and cranky and not really aware of what they are doing with their mouths. It passes once the tooth is through properly. I'm still feeding dd and she has 14 well-established teeth. She no longer pulls with her teeth (though she does the twiddling, twisting of the nipple all the time).

All you can do really is feed in a quiet place with no distractions, put him down when he does something you don't want and hope for the best.

Oh and you can try cooling his gums before a feed with a cold teething ring or wet flannel for him to chew so he doesn't need to pull on you so much. Do you use any teething gels or powders?

Calgel when he's grizzling with it, The teething ring before the feed is a good idea, thank you.

xx

If he pulls or bites, then instead of you pulling back, hug him tightly to you. They get a faceful of breast that way, and don't actually like it all that much! Sometimes a few repetitions of this is all that's needed to break the habit.

Also, if you can see a pattern to when he pulls off, you could break the suction with your finger as soon as he is about to pull off. That might teach him to let go, rather than pull off.

My ds2 did exactly what yours is doing (we called it 'nipple-grating' [ouch]) but we managed to get through this phase by doing what I've said above, and kept on feeding. It's very much a phase, as long as you don't let it develop into a habit - so the necklace is a good idea - and feeding becomes so very much easier once the first 4-6 teeth are through.