Breastfeeding

Biting

Help! My lo bites me every single feeding and it hurts so bad!! I can't handle this biting anymore and I don't know what to do. He's 7 months old and has 2 teeth. The way he unlatches is by biting my nipple and pulling his head off. He does this during the day and at night (when he's basically sleeping and eating at the same time). I am on edge every feeding. I can never relax bc I am just waiting for the bite. It's killing me and making me dread each feeding. I try to have my finger ready to unlatch him but unless I am quick enough and get
My finger under my breast and over his teeth (so he is biting my finger and not my nipple) it still hurts.

I try to tell him no biting, but he's just not getting it. Several times I am yelled in pain and I think I occasionally scare him when I do this and he will start to cry. He always continues to bite at the next feeding though. I have tried swooshing his face into my boob and that's not working either.

Honestly this is getting to the point that I dread breastfeeding. I basically tried EPing last week (my son was refusing to nurse and got exclusively bottles for a few days) but I struggles to pump enough for bottles. I was having to add in extra pumping sessions to get enough milk. Therefore, I feel like switching to EPing is not an option.

I really just want to make it another
5 months!

Thanks for reading. Any suggestions?

Re: Biting

  • it'll get better! your LO will get bored with it after a while. my DS did it after he got his first 2 teeth, and he had a couple of other phases of biting, but they were pretty short-lived. i know it is agonizingly painful.

    watch carefully when your LO nurses-- as SOON as he starts to get distracted (nursing slows down/pauses, or he starts looking around, or latching and delatching), immediately take him off the breast. generally they bite when they start to get bored or distracted at the breast, so the best thing is to get them off before they have the opportunity. if you do get bitten, try your best not to react. at this age, they don't understand  the consequence of "if i bite, i get taken off the breast," so IMO the best strategy is to try to avoid the situation in the first place. but your LO should get bored with it soon.
  • Thanks for the insight. I really hope this stops soon. I hate that I'm dreading every feeding. The biting is just killing me. My nipples are so bruised and painful. It's almost
    Like his latch had changed. Sometimes his latch is very shallow and I can feel his teeth biting me with every suck. Other times, nursing is fine and the biting is only with him unlatching.

    Why is breastfeeding so hard?? I thought this was going to be a walk in the park before he was born!
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  • i think it is awkward for them at first to sort of re-learn how to suck now that they have teeth in the way. if his latch is shallow or painful, take him off and re-latch him! do the thing where you smush your breast in your hand and make it into a "sandwich" which you can put into your LOs mouth to make sure he has a good, deep latch. you might also want to try nursing in a quiet, darkened room to help your LO relax and concentrate on nursing.

    if you are still having problems with painful nursing/bad latch after another week or so, it might be worth it to see a lactation consultant. 
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