Biting and BFing

stepgirl21

Beau just started to bite me. He'll nurse for a few minutes and then just hang out there and clamp down with his gums. thank goodness he doesn't have any teeth yet but it still hurts! Each time he does it, I pull away and say "no" sternly but I don't think he understands stern yet. What do you do?

efooey

Simon has done this a couple times - with teeth - ow

It usually happens when he isn't hungry, is overtired or something else is going on.  I usually take him off the boob, tell him no and then set him on the floor so he knows when he bites he's done, no more boob.

GL!  Hope he gets it out of his system now before the teeth come in

dana316

A friend who breastfed her son until he was 22 months old told me that she started explaining things to her son when he was very, very young...and when he would bite her she would immediately take him off the breast, very sternly say "No", then explain to him that biting hurts Mommy, and it is not very nice behavior etc.

The first time Caroline bite me, it scared/hurt/startled me so badly, that I yelled 'OUCH' really loudly.  It scared the hell out of her, and she started screaming.  She never bit me again...I don't recommend this tactic, but its what happened to us. 

 

qtpa2t

When Gabrielle bit me, we stopped nursing.  Typically, she only did it when she was done/bored anyway, but she pretty quickly understood the cause-and-effect, and so if she was hungry, she didn't bite me.  I didn't go through any stern no-s or explanation that it hurt as I honestly didn't think she understood me, but she did understand when the boob was taken away.  I might try again, but not until after 15-30 minutes.