Biting!! - Ashburnham,MA

My daughter bit me once while nursing when she was about nine months. After researching/asking around, the advice I was given was to give them a flick on the cheek and a firm "no" (without an emotional reaction). The next time she bit me, I did that and she never bit me again.

What worked for me was saying "no biting," taking him off and setting him down gently nearby for just a minute or two. If he was still hungry then we'd try again.

I also read that babies can't bite if their mouth is in a sucking position (tongue covers lower teeth) so if they're biting, they're not eating, and probably not all that hungry. I did find that if I tried to keep feeding after a nibbling there'd sometimes be more nibbling -- so maybe he wasn't hungry in those cases.

I also read that you should try to not have a big reaction (hard to do, ouch!) because the baby may like it and try getting the reaction again.

I'm guessing that if your baby has a fit when you take the breast away then hopefully he'll be motivated to have the behavior he needs to keep it! Like I said, I found that just a minute of breast deprivation at that age was enough to make an impression, at least in my son's case, and if he bit again after that then I assumed he was done eating for that session.

Good luck. Usually, like many annoying things, it's just a phase!

Hi Clerissa!
congratulations on Breastfeeding your baby boy. Please dont be discouraged, babies do bite around the teething time but you can teach him not to by putting your pinky b/t the gums (it wont hurt him!!) or just taking the breast away. My son nursed for 3yrs!! It's just a phase. Good Luck!

This is similar to Judy's advice, but when this happened to me I gave my baby a sharp, quick pinch -- hard enough to hurt but obviously not so hard I left a mark. It was hard to deliberately hurt my baby, but it only took one or two times before the biting stopped, so in the end it was best for both of us.

My guess is that this (or the cheek flicking Judy recommended) will be more effective than taking away the breast because it's a sharper consequence that cannot be negotiated. When you take away the breast, the baby can see that it's still there and thinks he can talk you into giving it back, which you probably do eventually, so he thinks he won. If you pinch, the pinching already happened, so if he wants to get what he wants (no pinching) he'll have to stop biting.

Obviously you don't need to stop nursing and move to the bottle, that was completely unhelpful advice.

DD did it at a later age and I would remove her from the breast and put her down immediately and tell her "no biting." I didn't use a stern voice bc I generally try to not make the reaction in any way interesting and by speaking normally, they hear the message while being removed physically. I would put her right back to the breast immediately if she wanted it and remove again until the message was delivered. Worked well for DD, this wasn't a long-term issue at all.

I'd also try the smushing into the breast that the pp mentioned(seems counter productive, I know) as I know others have found it effective.

This is what kellymom has to say about biting. http://www.kellymom.com/bf/older-baby/biting.html

Please do not hurt your baby as other posters have recommended: I really can't believe a couple people recommended that. I just don't even know where to begin with that one. Most babies try biting at some point, it can be dealt with sensibly.

My son did this from time to time and I found the best way to stop him was to insert my pinky between my nipple and his mouth. My nipple was still mostly in his mouth so he didn't totally panic that there was no more food. It was just enough to make it impossible for him to bite or nurse. I'd tell him "no biting" when I did it. If he went back on and nursed we were good. If he tried to bite again (like one of the other moms said)it seemed like he wasn't that hungry and we'd take a break for a while. They can and do learn not to bite, sometimes its just a phase (or they're teething and looking for pain relieve). We nursed through 13.5mos and LOTS of teeth(he had almost all of them before we were done), generally w/o issue.

- if you do think it's teething we gave him a cold wet baby wash cloth to suck on which he loved!

The lactation consultants told me to pull the baby into the breast hard when he bites, as this will cut off air to his nose and he will open his mouth to get his breath. As others have said, only takes a few times. I also say firmly "NO biting! That hurts!" because I'm a big believer in giving even young kids the language to express feelings.

I would involuntarily flinch and say "Ouch!" I would pull him away from my breast, followed by "No biting". And after just a handful of times, he didn't do it any more.

I ended up nursing about 12 months with very little biting in the mix. Even with a bunch of teeth, as time went on, it still wasn't an issue. He pretty quickly learned to not bite.

Enjoy!

Oh my god, I can't believe that other woman said to go to the bottle!!!!! Obviously you wouldn't be asking this question if you were going to take the easy way out.
You are doing exactly what you should be doing. Take the breast away for maybe half an hour and then resume feeding. Yes, he will freak out, but thats the point. He needs to realize he is doing something wrong. Eventually he will figure out that biting equals breast being taken away, which in turn equals sadness, and he will stop.

I read to push your breast into their face a little everytime they bite, kind of smothering them for a second or two. It will be uncomfortable for them and soon they'll catch on that the biting illicits a negative response.

I will tell you that my 14 month old daughter, who I still nurse, started doing this at 7 months, and I would get so upset (it hurts!), but it is short lived. At least it was for us. I hardly remember the biting now...

Good luck to you,
J.

This may sound bad, but when either of my kids bit me while nursing, I would flick the side of their cheek...not very hard, but hard enough for them to let go. After a couple of times they didn't bite anymore. Good luck!