So I'm struggling with nursing. My little dude has started biting my nipples hard (he now has teeth), pinching my arms and scratching my chest while nursing, I'm bruised and bleeding very often. Sometimes he does this if I nurse him after he has been crying, its like an extension of feeling grumpy, sometimes he does it to get a little rise out of me I think, and sometimes he just does it as a form of play. But, its starting to really take a toll on me. After lots of crying, and trying to soothe him, having him physically hurt me like that is really kind of terrible. I know he's not doing it on purpose or intentionally trying to hurt me, but it SUCKS. I want to shout "I AM A PERSON TOO". He's just about 9 months, so I'm thinking of beginning weaning to curb these behaviors. I don't think I can take much more it. I've read up and tried to calmly tell him no and stop nursing when he does it, but the lesson doesn't really seem to stick....
Re: Baby biting, pinching and scratching while nursing
For the scratching, do you have any teething necklaces? The chewy kind you wear. DD likes to flail and grab whatever idly while nursing, so I wear one of those and encourage her to play with it, or give her a stuffed kitty she loves. A special stuffy just for nursing might help as well.
The kicking... well, hopefully someone else has ideas bc those 9 month old legs are powerful when they get going! Yikes!
All of the scratching does help me remember to keep his nails short, but I definitely take a beating during feedings. This morning, he aggressively pinched my other nipple and sprayed me in the face with milk.
Glory...
I'm still nursing, he nurses a lot, but I'm going to offer less frequently now, and wait until he is really ready to eat. When he is truly hungry, he cuts out the nonsense and gets down to business. We want to do a frozen embryo transfer in October/November, when he is around a year old, so he will need to wean by then anyway. So I am going to gradually start cutting down on nursing. I will let take as long as it takes and not push anything. He is a terrific eater, so I think it should be fine. The only I thing I want to avoid is using formula. I think I am going to pump and have him take a bottle for some day time feedings, and see how that goes. When he is around a year, he can have cows milk, so I plan to nurse until then.