How to stop 8 month old biting whilst breastfeeding?

[MarLiz2026]

My 8.5 month old baby girl has been breastfed since birth. Currently, she has 3 meals a day and is doing really well on solids, however she still loves the milk and I am still breastfeeding throughout the day and night.

Recently, my daughter has started biting me a lot whilst feeding. She is currently teething and has about 3 teeth all cutting through at the same time which I know must be tough for her, but the biting is getting a lot and she has drawn blood from my nipple and ripped a bit of skin off. Granted, this was probably due to me pulling her off (I know you shouldn’t ever do this but it hurt so badly my instant reaction was to take her off) but it has really hurt me and this is the worst one it has been.

Whenever she bites I take her off and calmly say ‘no’ and then I put her down and say ‘do not bite mummy’. I do not let her feed again for a little while (if she is asking for it usually a few minutes and if she is not usually until she next asks for it or next feed is due)

I have tried putting teething gel on her teeth but this hasn’t seemed to help either. I feel I am trying everything and I really don’t want to stop breastfeeding but I don’t know if I can continue with her biting me like this. It has probably been going on for around 2/3 weeks now and it is really getting me down.

She is not the best with bottles, she will take them eventually but she is not reliable with them. I know sometimes it may be because they’re not hungry but I usually feed on hunger cues or for comfort.

If anyone has any suggestions please, this is making me really upset and am desperate to try anything.

Break her off every time and say no. Babies have great understanding of tone/energy. Let her know you are not happy. Every time she does it do the same.

I actually think that putting her down might not be working. I think you might want to try immediately re-latching and if she bites again break the latch again with your little finger. Keep doing it, so when she latches properly she gets the milk as a reward. Otherwise you're not actually making a positive association, just the negative one if you see what I mean.

La Leche League advice used to be to say no and move them in closer, not to pull away - Google will be able to find their advice.

I'm not sure an 8 month old would have any understanding of 'no, do not bite mummy'! No advice, I'm afraid but my 3rd baby was 13 months when he cut his first tooth and he bit me a few times during feeding - it was so painful I decided it was time to stop! He was really only having a bedtime feed and sometimes during night waking though, so it was easier to stop. Hope you get some helpful advice on here OP!

I tried the recommendations and couldn't stop the biting at this age, so that was the end of breastfeeding for me. I found that while I was upset to stop, my baby was fine with it 🥲

The first time my baby bit me I screamed, it wasn’t planned, but it hurt and startled me in equal measure. He unlatched and cried, I comforted him, and he never did it again. I think because my reaction was so fast, he immediately “got it.” At least that’s my only explanation for it.

I agree with this. That's what I did. Said no, unlatched, cuddle, then re-latch.

If you want to keep going, I'm sure you can fix this.
I'm another one that screamed the first time, then we both cried! After that I did the go towards him to break the latch/stop the bite, take him off with a firm no. A second bite meant no more feed for now. I managed not to scream again but noticed after a couple more bites he would let go at a sharp intake of breath, then he stopped biting. Touch wood, bites are now very few. I think he understood he'd hurt me, then had to work out what he'd done

Ditto. Yelled very loudly. He never did it again.

I ended up following the advice to bring them closer when they bite instead of pulling them off- almost like a boob smother so they have to open their mouth. Feel for you OP. It will get better again!

My mum said to push them more into the breast when they did this. Their nose gets squashed so they can’t breathe and naturally let go. I expect it’s what her mum told her too.

This is what happened to me too. My baby was teething at 3 months and I really didn't want to stop feeding. So I let my instincts take over and I yelped. She only did it a few times.

When mine did it I was so surprised that I shouted “ow” and took her off, she cried and I felt guilty but it worked!