Hi, it's my third child, I only nursed my first two a few months, no teeth were in the mix. My 8 month old son has his 2 bottom teeth and he is now biting me, HARD. I am freaking out!!! I shouted OUCH and I tried saying no bite, etc. But he just cried and got scared by me being upset. What do I do??? Help, I really want to nurse him at least a year....
Thanks so much ladies. He is down for a nap now, and when I go to nurse him again, if the biting happens again, I will try calmly but firmly saying "no biting" etc. This morning, after I shouted ouch, and he cried, I comforted him, then waited a minute and retried. Same thing happened again, but then the third time he nursed for a minute then I realized he just was tired, so I laid him down and he went right out. He's had the teeth for about 1 1/2 weeks, and he hasn't done major biting yet...I am hoping we will not have much trouble with this. It made me a little scared to nurse! It was painful!
I pull mine off, set her on the floor, and walk away from her for at least 10 minutes. I also realized that she only bit me when she really didn't want to eat. At this age you are adding solids meals and her need for B milk is diminishing. It may be time to drop a feeding.
If he is biting - he is not latched on and drinking. You can't bite and drink at the same time. Pull him off the breast - say NO BITING - then try to re-latch. If he does it again, put the breast away and wait 5-10 minutes, then try again. Good luck.
Take him off, say NO BITING, and have him sit facing away from you like a mini time out for a minute or so, then try again. My 5th did this bad and broke the skin too. He'd do it on purpose at around 7 months. I nursed my other 4 for 2 years with no problems so I was stuck. I had some moms on here recommend what I told you and it helped. He's now 20 months old and I'm still able to nurse him. Stay consistent and he'll stop. Good luck!!
Calmly say No and put him down. I say calmly, because if you sternly speak to him or yell or whatever it can make the reaction interesting. Of course sometimes we can't help yelling out! Ouch. I didn't use some arbitrary time-out. I was just matter of fact, put her down and would pick her right back up and if she bit again, did the same. My DD wasn't a big biter though, she did get the message pretty quickly.
Another thing you can do is to give him a cold teether or wet washcloth from the freezer just before nursing so he feels better. Sometimes that can help.
I nursed my boys until they were 13 months so they had a mouth full of teeth. I would lightly tap their cheek and then unlatch them and put them down. Babies are smarter then a lot of people give them credit for and they learn fast.
I just said, No Bites, stuck my finger in the corner of their mouths to unlatched them, got up and put them down somewhere and walked away.
They got the message pretty quickly.
Bites=Nursing session ends.
:)
It's a phase. My kids (all 3 of them) did it too. What worked for me was when they bite, gently press their head into your breast and say sternly "no bite". By pressing them into your breast they have to let go. Then put them down for at least 10 minutes... even if you just started nursing.
He's probably teething - so it feels good to bite, and he's getting a reaction out of mom, which is very entertaining.
He should learn quickly, mine all did.
J.
Teeth were the limit of my love of nursing. Hopefully someone can give you ideas but if not know that my four turned out fine not being nursed a full year. :)
Say no take him off and have him wait, my third (very similar situation as you, as I didn't nurse the first two) anyhow she bit about 10 times it felt like a lot at the time but she got over it. She would bite everything for a while, nipple, shoulder, knee, ankle (she was an ankle biter!! LOL) Anyhow She learned fairly quick 5 bites and she was done unless she got scared while she was eating and I think that was the rest of the 5 count I had, she had a full set of teeth at 7mo, no joke all eight in front so she had a good chomp.
Oh I hate that biting!
When my kids started biting it pretty much did what you did. Also I would take the breast away and tell them "no biting"
Took a few times, but they stopped.
Whenever he does it, say no and take him off the breast for a minute. Do this EVERY time he bites. It only took my daughter 2 times to learn that food stopped when she bit. It's just a phase. Good luck to you and your nipples :)
Hi L. - my daughter did the same thing. The best advice I received was to calmly say 'no bite' and put her down for a 'baby time-out' - maybe a minute then try again. Best of luck to you!
I agree with the others! A stern "No Biting" and setting him down for a minute will put an end to it quickly. It's hard not to react - I did the same as you and flinched hard and shouted OUCH the first time, and my son was afraid to try to nurse the rest of the day. Fortunately, after a 1 day break, I got him to nurse in his sleep that night, and by the next day he was nursing as usual.
If he bit you hard, you may need to start your nursing on the other side for a day or so. My babies latched on pretty aggressively on the 1st side when they were hungry (which was painful for me right after the bite), but by the time they are on the second side, they aren't as hungry and not as aggressive about latching on. You don't want to start with the same side all the time long-term, but if you need to start with the same side every time for a day or two so that it doesn't hurt as much, it's ok.
It will get better. Just keep giving him breaks and adjusting his latch when he bites. Whenever my DD got new teeth, it's like her latch changed so we had a few sessions where she bit me. If he's biting you at certain points, look for it. He may be bored or done nursing and what didn't used to hurt you now does. You can work through this. When you take a break, say "be gentle...." when you put him back on and when he does the right kind of nursing say, "good job" and such in similar tones. Hang in there! I nursed my DD til 2.5 with a full set of teeth. It can be done.
If a baby is biting, he isn't nursing or hungry anymore. He may be teething, he may be bored. If mine ever bite or start to hint at biting, I would sternly say, "No," and take him off the breast. Try, try, try not to yelp or make a strong reaction. It tends to amuse them more than anything else. It is a season that passes, I promise.
My older son bit me exactly three times - first time, I took him off, said no, and put him in his crib. He did it again about a week later, to make sure I meant it, and I did the same thing. The third time, the doorbell rang and startled him, and he got this panicked look in his eyes, and I continued to nurse him. I nursed him til he was about 14 months old.
DS #2, however, was completely different. Even though I did the same thing with him, his personality is different (not a rule follower, more of a rule breaker) and he continued to nip on a regular (weekly) basis until I stopped nursing him at exactly 12 months.
I want to second what Jess S. said below - it is exactly what I did for both my kids. It is VERY important you pay attention to HOW you take your child off the breast. Instinct would have you immediately yank away, but you can really hurt yourself if there are teeth clamped down on you. I couldn't ever manage to get my finger in there quick enough for me to unlatch them, but the "smush the face in the breast" trick works like a charm. A few times of that combined with a setting down and "No bites!" (I may have even walked away - I can't totally remember) did the trick!
