Teething 9m baby biting when bf - how do I stop this? And is it normal for him to still be waking 2-4 times a night and be very bad at eating food?

[zipzap]

Sorry, lots to ask I know...

Main problem is that ds2 is now teething - two bottom middle teeth have come through, one further on than the other, until now he hadn't really been biting when feeding so no problem. But last couple of days, thinking that teething was settling down (tooth 2 appeared last weds), not sure if he is teething again as he has started biting as he feeds - sometimes he is ok, but not always and no real way of telling.

Is there any way to stop the biting? I'm trying to do 'no' and unlatch him, although it tends to be more of a 'ARRGGGHHH NO ARGGH ARRGH OOOOOWWWW' and a mad fumble to get him to open his jaws, can't unlatch him simply like I could before this started or when he is sucking properly.

He is waking for feeding several times in the night still - ds1 slept through from 6 weeks, so accept this is payback time but it means he wants lots of milk through the night - not sure if this is affecting his eating... he also seems to have a constant cold and be very snotty which probably isn't helping.

DS is really bad at eating stuff - am trying purees and BLW stuff but whatever I try he still doesn't eat very much (just a few mouthfuls of food at each meal if I am lucky) and he enjoys chomping on a biscuit at the end even if most of it ends up on the floor.

So just wondering if anyone has any wise words or ways they could pass on to help? I would love to carry on bf as I didn't manage with ds1, but not sure that I can stand it if the biting continues. Is there anywhere that has good info on the approx no of bfs and real food feeds that a 9m old needs - seems to be lots of info around for when they are younger, not so much for when they get slightly older.

A complicating factor is that I have occasionally tried to give ds2 a bottle with either ebm or formula in and he has always rejected it, so am worrying that he won't get anything the way he is going if he won't take a bottle and my nipples no longer exist as they have been chewed off!

Thanks for your help.

I read somewhere (maybe on mn?) that babies tend to bite when they have had enough milk and they are just messing around on the breast. If it helps, dd did this to me for a couple of weeks when she was 9 months (a few weeks ago). She seemed to think that doing it was hilarious but has since stopped it on her own. The nct breastfeeding woman said that when babies bite it helps to make a big fuss, ie pull away, shout etc, to scare them, but it felt mean to me so I haven't done that yet (although it's difficult when dd is REALLY hurting)

I am also having trouble getting dd to eat solid food. I think I might start controlled crying in the new year, so won't bf her if she wakes in the night, and I am going to start giving dd meals with other babies her age so she can see them eating. I think babies under the age of 1 need about 20oz of breast milk a day, so 3 or 4 breastfeeds.

Sorry I can't be more help...

Oh, and dd likes to have milk in a sucky cup. Not a free flow one. It took her a couple of months to figure out how to use it but she loves it now. She also likes the doidy cup, which is very easy for little ones to drink from.

Thanks Bessie, that's really helpful.

I've just found a bit of stuff on the kelly site (can't remember proper name and shut it now!) which also suggests pusing the baby into your breast briefly so it has to open mouth to breathe as a technique that I might try next time - seems that if you try to pull nipple out while baby is chomping on it, it can cause more damage, and this is a quick way to get them to open up. Can see the logic in it, so will see what happens when I try!

poor ds ticks so many of the boxes as to why he might be biting (teething, cold/blocked nose, getting distracted etc) that I am just going to have to work through lots of different things to see if anything will work.

He does have a sippy cup - have tried several and there doesn't seem to be a clear favourite yet, but he never gets more than about 50ml out at a meal and lots of that ends up over him and his bib rather than in him... and I had a doidy cup for ds1 that he never got the hang of and water just ended up splashed around the kitchen so it is now used to hold ds1's cutlery - must dust it down and see if ds2 likes it, had forgotten about it!

thans again.

My 11mo DS is currently biting (see another thread on this topic) and we're working on that (we've been looking at patterns of when he bites and are going to stop offering him milk at those times)

Anyway, he didn't really eat much till about a month or so ago, when he seemed to be stuffing his face at every opportunity, as well as having plenty of BM. He's dropped off a bit again now but is still eating 3 small meals a day, and I like to remind myself that he'll eat when he wants to / needs it and try to relax about it.

Anyway, the point of that was to say that its perfectly normal IME and although you will, on occasion, worry about it, they change so quickly you never know what they'll be doing next week.

Also, at 9mo, DS was still waking twice a night, and still regularly wakes once.