Nursing a 7Th Month Old

had the same problem. I was told to firmly say no, but she just laughed at me so I just would not breatfeed her for 10mins, then would try again. She learned that biting meant no feeding and she stopped. She only does it when she would not be hungry.

E.

Hi Sandra,

Biting hah? This does not need to become a problem. Sometimes when a child bites... they get a bag of reactions. Some women may yell, other pull away. Try not to make your reaction fun at all. I would start a nursing session just like normal. If the baby clamps down, then push her into the breast. I know this sounds horrible but it will decrease damage to the nipple. If you pull off the breast, think of thier tongue just like a sharp knife slididng off your breast. OUCH!!!! If you push the baby into the breast, suddenly they can't breathe. The only way to breath is to open my mouth because my nose is blocked. When the mouth opens it releases your nipple. Then I would patiently let baby know THERE IS NO BITING! BITING HURTS! If the child starts to breastfeed again and bite again. This time push into the breast, release the suction, mouth opens again and break the suction. This time place your infant on the floor and give them something appropriate to chew on (frozen face cloth, teething ring, frozen bagel ect.) This will reinforce mom not ok to bite, cold face cloth ok to bite. I hope this info helps.

H. B.

The request below is awsome.. way to go mom.. I have 3 boys and nursed all of them for a year and every single one of them bite me... and what i found to work is to make a shhh sound.. (bite down on your own teeth and instead of blowing air out suck air in making a shhh sound, this made them look up at me and then I would sternly say NO BITING and would tap their mouths with my finger so they knew what I was talking about.. then after about the 3rd time if I even felt like they were going to bite I would make that sound and they would come off my breast themselvs... good luck.

Ouch!!! Been there. When you breastfeed correctly, you will not get bit. (I learned this the painful way). Your daughter's toungue covers her teeth so she can't bite you. What she is doing now is playing. When you feel teeth, she's not eating. Take her off and tell her no. Do it everytime she tries to use her teeth. When she is really hungry and ready to eat, she will no longer "play" any more. Good luck!

when you are nursing her and if she bites down take her off, you may have to do it a few times but she will soon realize that you dont like it when she does it and soon stop. hope this helps

Hi Sandra! :)

Ouch! I've totally been there! Luckily tho, I got her to quit biting me before her 1st tooth came in, but it still hurt terribly! :(
My daughter did it quite a lot actaully. I tried yelling "No! That hurts!" Which made her look at me funny but didn't help. I tried taking it away from her when she did it. THAT didn't help either. Finally my Mom said, "Sweetie, You need to do whatever it takes to make her stop biting. She needs to keep nursing for the sake of her health. Next time she bites, flick her cheek at the same time. It will "hurt" a bit but won't hurt her. What will truely hurt her is if you decide to quit nursing because of this."
I knew she was right, and it was a little hard to make myself do it, but ...IT WORKED. After 3-4 times of this, she STOPPED and has NEVER bit me again. I would flick her cheek followed with a "Ouch! No! That hurts Mommy!" After that if I felt like she wasn't being gentle enough with me, I would just gently tap her cheek and tell her to "be gentle". She would make this cute little "mmmm" sound to let me know, Ok Mom, I will. hehe

Good luck!
M.

Sandra,

My second son is almost 8 months old so I'm right there with you. He's chomped me a few times. I nursed my first until he was 2 so I've been through this already. LOL It is really common that they will bite a few times but it is usually a quickly passing thing. A few things that you can do to limit your daughter's ability to bite: watch her closely. A baby can't actively nurse and bite at the same time. My son almost always gets me when I'm trying to get him to nurse and he's not interested (like when he's fussy and I try to force it). So if you watch your baby and unlatch her as soon as she quits actively nursing (unless she's almost asleep), that will really limit the opportunities to get bit. My son is teething really badly right now. I've found that giving him a dose of tylenol or motrin and waiting 15 minutes really helps. He's much less likely to use my boob as a teether that way (he's much more bitey than his brother ever was). If it is really bad, I'll use some oragel (not too much or she won't be able to nurse) and then nurse. If it gets to the point where you think she's doing it on purpose, a sharp "don't bite" and sitting her down and walking away will send the message to her really quick that it isn't cool to bite mom. Some babies start to do it for the reaction and walking away is not a reaction they like. When she does bit down, you can insert your finger into the corner of her mouth and she'll unlatch really quickly. But hang in there, biting usually doesn't become a habit and it is usually just a short lived reaction to trying to figure out what to do with their changing mouth.

T.

I would yell ouch loud enough to startle her then set her down and walk away. This worked for me. My daughter got upset and never bit again.

The natural response is to say "ouch!" so go with that. She should get the idea. BTW, when they first get teeth nursing can hurt (you) a little. But it will get better. I nursed both of my daughters until they were 2 years old.

Holly B had an AWESOME answer!

For me, I only got bit a few of times, and I don't think any of them were on purpose. If I didn't hold him right, then once in a while his head would fall back while he started to fall asleep, then he'd try to "grab" me again with his teeth. OUCH! If this is your situation, think about how you're holding her and whether her head can fall away the wrong way. As long as you are properly supporting her head, you’ll do okay. I was able to keep nursing to 18 months, or more importantly to your situation, about 16 teeth.

Now for the BAD news! If your nibble is very tender and nursing HURTS immensely, KEEP DOING IT! If your breast becomes red and hot, and/or you start running a fever, contact your doctor. Mastitis- an infection of the milk duct, is VERY common after a trauma such as this. It happened to me after the first time that my son bite me. Unfortunately, to get rid of it you must nurse more, which is EXCRUCIATING (makes nursing that first week after birth feel like a game of pat-E-cake), and take an antibiotic.

You’ll do fine! Just keep Holly’s advice in mind if she thinks it’s a game, and how you hold her if she’s nodding off. ~J.

I have over 7 1/2 years of breastfeeding experience with my 4 kids. And I remember well all of those teeth marks! The thing that worked best for me was just to stick my little finger in the corner of their mouth to break the suction and calmly but firmly would say "no bite." Then I would just go right back on nursing. It only took a handful of times and they got the message that "dinner" would be taken away quickly if they bit me. I breastfed my kids until they had ALL of their teeth and this method worked really well. Of course the only downfall is that the milk continues to flow and I ended up with a lapful of milk on more than a few occasions. Just a small price to pay for less painful feedings.

It kills, doesn't it? I remember sitting there with tears streaming down my face after 2 bites in a row.

Finally, even though it was really inconvenient for me and messed up our schedule, I would put my son down and not nurse him for another 20 minutes at least. He learned quickly that if he bit, it was all over.

It does pass...good luck!