OW OW OW OW!!!! HELP!!!!! BFing 14-month-old, he has had teeth for 6 months but it suddenly hurts! What could we be doing wrong?

[Jacksmama]

YEEEEOUCH!!!!!!!

My 14 1/2 month old milk monster cut his bottom teeth at 5 1/2 months, and top teeth a few months later. No problems BFing at all. He was pretty much exclusively breast-fed until 11, 12 months (can't remember now) and then started to experiment with bits of food. He now has four full top teeth, and the top canines and first molars are halfway down. He has three (yes, only three, LOL) teeth on the bottom but the molars look like they'll be cutting through soon.

In the last week, BFing has started to hurt, and I've occasionally seen tooth marks around the nipple (not biting-type tooth marks but pressure-type). What do I need to be doing differently about his latch or position? Today I've started to show him a big open mouth before he latches on, and take him off if it's sore, but what else can I do?

PLease help, I am not going to wean him because of this, so please don't tell me 14 months is enough - I would be devastated and so would he.

Shamelessly bumping for my sore boobies.

Could you be ovulating? My nipples get really sore BFing when I'm OVing

Isn't interesting that you should ask if I'm ovulating - I just posted on the "ragged bits" thread about this... I haven't had a period in almost two years and thought this week that my tum felt like it did when I was ovulating... this wouldn't make me particularly happy, TBH... but it could be.

I don't think that's all it is though so any other advice would be welcome!

Thank you... I put Rescue Cream on the last few days, Lansinoh doesn't really do anything for me.

Jacksmama, I would second having a look at your positioning. It is so easy to neglect it after you get this far.

I had the tooth indentation thing (don't remember what age ds was) and I solved it by bringing him up a bit higher on a pillow IIRC. Also, if we were feeding at night, I made sure he was really well tucked in beside me rather than kind of dragging on my nipple IYSWIM.

It was a phase that passed fairly quickly I think, and the taking him off and asking to do a really big mouth will hopefully help. Hope you get it sorted soon!

Ah, ok, will do - he's quite long (31" or so) and lies across my lap but maybe he is dragging on my nipple a bit... will check next time, thank you very much!

Similar sorts of goings on with my LO. He has definitely been teething on and off since February, and has occasionally chomped down a bit too hard. When he's actually nipped, I've said "no" firmly and removed him from the breast for a few minutes and it has done the trick. But like you say, occasionally he's left indentations and I've put that down to teething pain at the time, as most of the time it's been OK. Have used ambesol or bonjela prior to some feeds if I thought he was particularly bad.

Don't pack it in if you & your DS don't want to. Am still doing 3 feeds a day and enjoying the cuddles. Sorry if I can't offer you any actual advice, but wanted to let you know you're not alone and you'll get through it if you want to.

Oh, we will! [determined emoticon] He's likely going to be my only so I will BF him as long as he wants to. (Short of secondary school, of course .)

Ouch, I sympathise. I get similar soreness when DS is getting his mouth round new teeth / sore gums.
I found some of the tips here useful. HTH

I had this with my nursing recently, I tandem nurse my toddler and baby.

I did concentrate on latching and it went away again after a few days. I hope your soreness goes away shortly.

It could be because at 14 mths, toddlers are learning what to do with their mouths (experimenting with lots of different textured foods etc) and so they forget that the whole boob isn't just a huge exciting foodstuff that they aren't actually supposed to be chomping on?

My bf journey I feel is finally coming to an end, as dd is definitely losing the suck reflex and ends up chomping on me all the time....

Jacksmama, you've got some great ideas already on this thread - soreness because of teeth is usually short-lived, fortunately!

We're all well, come back and visit!! We've added a bed and a bison... the two don't necessarily go together, however...

Thank you all - hoping this will pass soon. It may be because we're not home right now, we're visiting my mum in Toronto and we're not nursing in any of our familiar chairs, sofas, beds, etc... so maybe it's jet lag and unfamiliar environment/ position...