****PLEASE PLEASE HELP - breast-feeding a toddler has suddenly become painful!! <wails> (Me, not the toddler...)

[Jacksmama]

Also posted this in Breast and Bottle Feeding but had only one response [loser emoticon] - please, someone, anyone...

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.

Jacksmama those suggestions have me smiling. We progressed, after playing with the shields for a while, to DS trying to drink. Cue proper bite, which he never does usually. Shields going in bin, and I am off to research ways of weaning him off the boob I reckon. He sees the whole thing as a confrontation now and has started asking for "bite" rather than his usual "milk" . . .

for you sandyposy

ah, thanks happycopter. Funnily enough last night and today were pretty good, he opened his mouth well and though there are always indentations when he finishes, it wasn't too painful while he was feeding ...

So next step is the bfing counsellor . . .

It's JM - quick namechange

Sandy, sorry to hear the shields didn't work. Did you want to stop b/f DS or would you happily carry on if he didn't bite? I only ask because I really want to cut down on b/f my ds, but can't because he has never drunk out of a cup / bottle/ anything else apart from me. I have tried to introduce a cup umpteen times but he WILL NOT entertain the idea. Don't understand it as never had this problem with my other 2 DSs. The things we do for love....

change is always good HC!

Zen1, I'm in two minds about stopping bfing. On the one hand, it's such a great thing to have up my sleeve to help DS with the ups and downs of toddler life; and he doesn't feed that much any more (although he would a lot more if I didn't sometimes find ways to distract him - a yoghurt etc etc). At the moment it's just first thing in the morning and whenever he goes to sleep at home (rod, back and all - I know!), plus the odd extra if he feels like it.

On the other hand, I am quite tired of bfing in a general sense, feel all touched out and would quite like to reclaim my boobs for other long forgotten purposes... And want to stop feeling so hungry and get myself back into shape a little. Plus moving from waking up multiple times in a night to hardly at all seems to have made me less willing to feed (mostly because it's most painful at night when DS is half asleep); and the residual soreness from the teeth doesn't help during the day, either.

To cut to the chase, my ideal would be if he could taper off slowly at his own pace, but the level of confrontation involved in most feeds these days is making me think that this is not going to happen. Getting a 20month-old to stop is not going to be easy, though ? he often gets completely distraught if I don't say yes as soon as he asks ? full tantrum, the works. Sigh. It's really hard!

But as to cups etc, DS does drink from them fine, just point-blank refuses to drink cows or goats milk, even in cereal! Have you tried your DS with a sports-type cup which he actually has to suck? My boy particularly likes these. Or could try getting some nice plastic cups for you to drink from, and letting him have a few sips when you're having water, milk or whatever from them. This was the way my DS learned to drink from cups ? he's always interested in food and drink that isn't his!