aargh! Bfing my teething 13m old is so painful!

[taliac]

BFing my 13m DD has been a joy.

But shes got new teeth through and they are sharp little buggers. My left boob now has a graze next to the nipple that reopens every feed. It is utterly agonising to feed on that side.

It has been made worse lately by DD's cold that has made her a) feed more frequently and b) come on and off a lot during a feed so as to breathe.

Plus she sort of pulls on that side with her mouth when feeding which makes it hurt more, no idea why she does it, its only on that side. Maybe because I'm so tense?

Was planning to cut down slowly over the next few months and phase it out by the summer. But at this rate I might have to stop before then.

Unless anyone has any good ideas?

Hi! I went through the exact same thing a few months ago. (My 12m dd has 8 teeth).

I am lucky that my borough has a bf support programme and so I had someone come to see us. She was amazing and had tons of great advice, which I'll try to pass on:

First, she said best thing is to stop feeding on the injured breast for a day or so, to give it time to heal. She assured me that the milk won't go away, as bf is established by this age. She said to express that breast as required, manually if it is too sore to use a pump, and if you want you can give your dd that milk too.

This was really helpful for a way to heal the breast: www.kellymom.com/bf/concerns/mom/nipplehealing.html. I didn't do everything listed, but the saline solution and bm seemed to work well. I was amazed at how quickly it does heal. I think I only had to stop for 24 hours for each. (I had wounds on both sides, so I did the worst one first, then switched).

She also reviewed latching and positioning, and recommended a position for older babies where they sit up, rather than lie down, so that there is less pull, ifyswim.

I'm trying to remember what else.., I wish I could just send her to you, she was brilliant and so reassuring.

I have these links bookmarked from that time, KellyMom and LLL, so maybe they will cover the other points I am forgetting:

www.kellymom.com/bf/older-baby/biting.html#scraping
www.llli.org//NB/NBJulAug01p143.html
www.kellymom.com/babyconcerns/distractible-baby.html

GOOD LUCK!!

Almama, thats amazing, thanks so much.

This is why I love mn!

. Let me know how it goes!

wow wish I had seen this post a week ago! I had a horrible wound from my teething 9mo (5 teeth) and was literally in tears at every feed - I thought I had to carry on feeding to avoid mastitis. I phoned the breastfeeding helpline and to be honest they were utterly unhelpful and just told me to keep feeding.

Eventually I saw my doctor who prescribed an antibiotic cream and some local anaesthetic - which helped to some extent - so might be worth getting some if these tips take longer than you want. Good luck! I couldn't believe the level of pain so you have all my sympathy.