Biting when breast feeding

[Mrs1GeneGenie]

My is DD 8 months old and has four lovely teeth (two top and two bottom) which she keeps biting me with when I am feeding her. She still needs her feeds nutritionally and takes comfort from them but I am in danger of loosing my nipple!

Has any one experieced this problem before and found any solutions apart from stopping breast feeding which I really don't want to do!

I'm quite new to mums net so sorry if this is a done to death topic I'm bringing up again

Thanks for your time

luckily my son never discovered his teeth had this use while i was bf'ing! but from what i've read in various places, the very first time they do it you should shout OWWW and stop the feed, apparently this works in many cases, as they are so shocked. but... not sure if works in practice, and as you say she is doing it repeatedly, um, i'm sure there are previous forums on this. my instinct would be to stop the feed though and distract her, then try again.

I withdrew the boob and yelled when my DS bit me when through this phase. He kept up with random nips for a while but did stop fairly quickly. I think he was teething like crazy and once the troublesome teeth came through it improved. I think he also figured out pretty quickly that bites = swift removal of boob!

Good luck!

yep mine started to do this and best thing that worked was immediately taking him off and saying no firmly and putting him to one side and ignoring him briefly (even put boob away) - sounds a bit mean written like that but just gives a really strong message that mum doesn't like that and by doing it, they don't get what they want. I only had to do it a couple of times and he stopped.

(Still gives a cheeky nip v occasionally, but I know when it's going to happen because he looks at me in a sly way first! So I can usually avoid it. He immediately gives me a sorry kiss and feeds properly as he knows he's naughty, just pushing his luck, little devil)

Thanks ladies am not sure what I did without mumsnet!

Will try all of above but things still a little difficult with DD's stomach upset which just won't go away.

Thanks for all your help x

I did pretty much what LordVolAuVent recommends - baby nips, I say OW! NO! and immediately remove baby and place on floor. I've done exactly the same on the odd occasion she's nipped any other part of my body (shoulder for example).

It is a bit traumatic for them - to be suddenly removed from cosy cuddle /breastfeed, but it does seem to make clear that biting just won't be tolerated. DD has always cryed when I've done this, but I pick her up again after a few seconds. I don't use this measure for anything else, and it seems to have worked - I only got a couple of nips on my boob, and one on my shoulder since the first time this happened at about the same age as your baby; and my DD is now 14 months. So I hope it's worked - she now has 11 teeth

I was going to post on this the other week - my 7mo DS has 6 teeth. But I asked at my local BFing support group and the HV got her BFing 'bible' out.

It's best (but difficult) not to yell apparently, as it can really scare them and sometimes put them off BFing at all . You just say 'no' firmly and put them on the floor as PPs have said.

I learnt a lot about preventing them biting in the first place - and it's worked so well that I've not actually needed to tell him off for biting as he hasn't done it since! Basically it seems I'd become a bit complacent. By this age, baby is good at feeding so you naturally might pay less attention during latching and feeding. So:

• make sure they open their mouth wide and get a big mouthful of breast, just like you were probably told right at the start.

• keep more eye contact, I've made more effort to talk gently to him whereas before I admit I was just letting him get on with it

• keep an eye out for any triggers, apparently some babies bite at loud noises etc.

HTH - as I said, I've just invested more time/attention to BFing and it's worked a treat!

prevention sounds good. I am not may be as attentive when feeding as I used to be in the beginning!

No nips today but will try all of the above tomorrow.

Thanks again ladies

my 4 month old has started to bite as well. no teeth yet, but she clamps down her jaw and sometimes then turns her head. ouch!
not sure about removing yet, I heard discipline of all sorts should only start from 6 months...

some very good advise regarding this matter on la leche league website.

Sonilaa- in my experience sorting it before teeth arrive is a good plan!

Cece- i'll check out that website,

Thanks