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Attachment Parenting
? about nursing 12+ month olds.
My DD is almost 13 months old. Over the last few days it's been painful to nurse her. She is using her top two front teeth when she sucks. She's had these teeth for several months so they aren't new. I pulled her off last night and earlier today and saw two teeth marks. I thought maybe it was just when she was tired and being lazy, but it happens during the day when she's happy and playing.
Any advice? I've been taking her off and putting her back on, but I don't know if I can continue if she keeps using her teeth. Thanks!
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Re: ? about nursing 12+ month olds.
That's what my oldest did. I think it started around 18-24 months, and I put up with it for close to a year before I decided I couldn't do it anymore. I started weaning her at 34 months, and she was done nursing at 38 months.
The only thing I did was keep unlatching her when she hurt me, told her to be gentle, and then let her nurse again. If she couldn't nurse without digging in her teeth, I'd cut our nursing session short. It was more uncomfortable than painful, which is why I lasted so long with the problem.
Charlotte Ella 07.16.10
Emmeline Grace 03.27.13
My DS is 13 months old, and I haven't had many bites, but I have had a few. Ouch! I notice it happens when he is finished nursing, he just won't unlatch himself. I unlatch him and we go get a toy and if he starts playing, then I know that he was just finished. I am trying to teach him to sign "all done", but he hasn't picked it up yet, so until then, I will just say and sign all done when he does bite and distract him with something else.
Also, I agree with kersbear about pulling off and saying "no bite". I definitely will start implementing that as well if the distraction doesn't help and he seems to want to keep nursing.
Thank you for asking this question our LO has just started the same kind of thing. She also occasionally does the serious bite thing but that's easy to deal with because I figure if you're biting then you're not drinking and thus you're not thirsty and stop the session.
The general pressure from the teeth though I was just accepting as par for the course.
Elizabeth 5yrs old Jane 3yrs old
My 3yo still does this from time to time. Fortunately, he's now old enough that I can just tell him that he needs to "do it right or not at all," and he understands what I'm saying. I've done the unlatching him and cutting the session short, and that's probably the most helpful suggestion that I have. I've also just learned to tolerate it a bit more than I used to be able to do when it first started.
For me, this isn't nearly as bad as the period he went through when he was "experimenting" with his latch and how to suck. He just thought he'd get creative I guess, and he was doing all sorts of crazy acrobatics with his tongue. It was absolutely awful. I'm so glad that I finally figured out what he was doing and why it was so horribly uncomfortable b/c when I talked to him about it he finally stopped right away.
I guess the only other suggestion that I have is to keep working on patience and communication. As they get older, it does get easier to just tell them what the problem is and expect them to help resolve it. Some days are just better than others though.