Breastfeeding Biter!

I'm breastfeeding my fourth child and the thing that has always worked for me is a LOUD and quick NO when he/she bites. It startles the baby, sometimes they cry a bit, but it's always stopped my kiddos. The 3rd child I breastfed until 20 months and only got bit once or twice. I'm now breastfeeding my 4th and she started biting a couple weeks ago and I yelled no at her loudly. She pulled away and smiled (the stinker) but stopped during that session. A couple days later she bit me and before I could yell no she pulled away and started shaking her head no and smiling. Can't be mad when she is so darn cute, lol. Luckily she is 7 months with no teeth yet :) Good luck

My 8 mo old has 4 teeth and is leaving marks on the top of my areola right now.

The one thing I'm finding is to make sure her mouth is good and wide open before putting my breast into her mouth and making sure she doesn't pull back once she's latched.

If you hold him close once he's on and not biting he may try to pull back but will learn how to suck without biting.

Its the only thing that's worked for me.

I hope that helps!

The best thing to do is the firm no biting and ending the nursing session. Don't scream or anything like that because that will scare him and he may go on a nursing strike. If you take him off the breast with a firm, but calm, "No Biting" he will learn after a few times. There are many women on the Babyfit.com message boards that have supported this theory and its effectiveness. Good luck!

I lucked out with my son - nursed him until 18 months and he never bit me. My daughter is 17 months, still nursing, and bit me a few times when her first teeth came in. The hardest part is not over react. If you yell or scream or make a weird face or say "ow" they think "hey, I got a reaction - let's do that again!". I would say "No biting" in a very stern voice and stop feeding her... for at least 5 minutes. If she immediately bit me again, I would make it a little longer, 7-10 minutes. You didn't say how old your son is... 5 minutes is a very long time for a younger baby. My daughter was around a year old when she first bit me so the 5-10 minutes was a good time. Basically she learned that Biting = no more milk.

A loud "Ouch!" once or twice is usually all it takes. They don't like to be startled anymore than you like to be bitten! If worse comes to worst, you can try using a nipple shield if he'll take it at this point.
Good Luck:)

Hi R.,

First, here's a few links for you that might give you more ideas:
http://www.kellymom.com/bf/older-baby/biting.html and http://www.askdrsears.com/html/2/T029900.asp

Try gently pressing his face into your breast when he bites. This will force him to let go, and save you from further pain while trying to get him to release his grip.

While nursing, watch for signs that he is done eating and remove him from the breast before he starts playing or gets ready to bite.

Mother's milk is still a vital part of an 8mo's diet and I congratulate you on working to keep things going so that he continues to get the physical and emotional benefits of nursing. Nursing is great too, when you're a WOHM, I found it to be a wonderful way to re-connect and I was bringing home immunities to any germs that I encountered and brought home as well!

If I can offer you any other support, let me know. :)

M.

How long has he done this? My daughter did it for about 2 weeks here and there. Then she just stopped. I did the whole, stop with the finger in the mouth, and the no, but nothing helped it stop. My peds doctor said if she sees me jump or flinch everytime it won't take her long to realize that hurts me and she will stop and she did. It's really hard, I would keep up the telling to stop, or no, and put the finger in the mouth and it should stop real soon. If it don't you can always ask your peds doctor.

To be honest, 3 times in a month is not too awful many times. My daughter used to bite me just to see my reaction. The first time she bit me I reacted without thinking because it was so unexpected. She LOVED it! So then she bit a few more times just to see what I would do. I tried the suggestion of unlatching her and saying firmly, "no biting." But that didn't seem to work. So, finally, I just unlatched her, looked at her "firmly" and then allowed her to latch back on. For her, I think it was the reaction she was getting that made her keep doing it.
Keep breastfeeding as long as you can. It is the best for you and your baby. My daughter is 14 months old and I still breastfeed in the morning and evenings. I mourn the day, which is rapidly approaching, when we don't have that time together.

I know you said you want to breastfeed until he is a yr. old, but when babies start biting it's time to go to the bottle. You could still pump your milk and he would get the same nutrients he's getting now. My brother was about his age when my mom said he started biting her while feeding. She put him on the bottle and as he got more teeth he started biting the nipples off his bottles. She was glad she had put him on it.

Teething babies are similar to teething babies in the fact that they feel a need to chew on things to relieve the discomfort. Anything that goes in the mouth is automatically a chew toy. I would suggest that if you want to breast feed as painlessly as possible that you try to pump your milk and put it in a bottle or training cup. You can still hold him close while you feed him, but atleast if he bites, it won't be you that he's biting. He's 8 months old and it's just a matter of time before you wean him off of breast milk to begin with, atleast if you pump he'll still have the breast milk until he's old enough to wean. I've had to switch from full up breastfeeding to pumping it to a bottle as early as 3 months for some of my kids as they were early teethers and at that age they understand the concept of "no".

when he bites IMMEDIATELY remove the breast and end the feeding for at least 10-14 minutes. even at his tender age, it will not take long for him to catch on. i breastfed four children, the last one not being fully weaned until he was two.
there are so many many reasons to nurse, please hang in there. the benefits are huge!
good luck!
L. from liberty, ky

Did you try breaking the suction from the breast and the child and telling him firmly no biting? And let him know that he can not bite you, and still get fed. That is what my breast feeding conselor told me to do and it worked my daughter has bitten me just once since them, but if you break the suction between the feeding source and the child and tell him not to bite it should work. Now that my daughter is older I can tell that she might bite when she gets this funny smile on her face so I can stop it before it happens. Good luck with this.