6 mth old biting - help!

[babysanfrancisco]

Hi - I am new here. Please be gentle with me!

My ds is 6.5 months old and has his two bottom front teeth. Since they've come through, he has got into a habit of biting me - he clamps on and then pulls away. And it really HURTS!

I don't know if he is doing it because he is bored, or wants to change sides, or just isn't that hungry??? The most irritating thing is that he laughs after he's done it - evil child!!

Does anyone have any tips for what I can do to stop him please? I think one of his top teeth is about to come through any day now, and the thought fills me with dread. I don't want to stop bf but I think my nipples are hoping I will at the moment!

Thanks so much.

x

When this happened to me, someone told me just to gently pull the baby into me a bit more. The baby then lets go.

DS bit me several times when he was teething. I tried:

pulling him in to my boob to block his nose and make him more likely to let go to breathe through his mouth - so the theory went... He clung on with the couple of teeth he had, growled and bit harder - it was like feeding an angry puppy!

rubbing teething gel on his gums to make him less likely to want to bite for comfort, with limited success.

giving him something cold to chew on before a feed, he hated that.

feeding him with one hand millimetres away from his chin and watching him closely. As soon as I saw his mouth shape change in an "I'm just about to bite you" fashion, I grabbed hold of his chin, pulled it down, pushed him away from my boob, tapped him gently on the nose and said, "No!". This last one was the one that worked for me, but the others might work for you. The other thing to do is to put him down and refuse to feed him, although if you're predominantly feeding him at night, this might not be the way forward...

Never smile, even if he grins at you. But I'm sure you don't, as it's not bloody funny to be bitten on the nipple! Good luck with it - I found it lasted a couple of days, but was soon over. The anticipation's the worst bit though...

I've had success with pressing baby into the boob. I've also had success with immediately very calmly putting him down, and wandering off. No saying "Ouch!", no interesting reaction. The baby may cry, but that's fine, leave him to it for a minute or two.