[Ms K]

Hi, ds is 5 months old and currently has 5 teeth, the sixth is bulging and should break though soon.

He is fully breastfed and is developing a habit of biting me and others. With so many teeth it is getting very painful. He bits my nipples to let me know when the breast is empty. He bits arms, necks anything he can reach when he is frustrated and they are bothering him.

Has anyone dealt with something similar? How can I get him to stop? I know he doesn't understand but it is hurting so much that Iam starting to dread feeding time.

[lucky 2]

Hi there,

I have moved your topic into the Breastfeeding forum.
After I moved it I read your post again and realised that your baby is biting in general and not just when on the breast.

I've left a link in the Birth-6 months forum so hopefully you will get some helpful feedback.

Kind regards,

lucky 2
Moderator

eta, this might be worth a read- http://kellymom.com/ages/older-infant/biting/

This post has been edited by lucky 2: 07/02/2013, 08:30 AM

[Ms K]

Bump

[divineM]

My DD, now 23 months and still bfeeding once a day, has gone through periods of biting the breast. Each time she did it I would just detach her and say "no" before letting her continue. The phases were usually short though and she was never a biter outside of bfeeding. I know a friend told me that the "thing to do" is to stop the breastfeed completely each time they bite and put them down on the floor, so they understand that it's not on. Yours is still so little though - not sure if it will work. Hope you get some helpful advice!

[deejie]

Both of my boys went through various stages of biting-- cutting teeth certainly was one of the bigger problems. I think biting down relieved some of the pressure in their gums and was probably comforting. Certainly not comforting for the poor recipient though!

If he is biting when the breast is empty, I would be watching him very closely during the BF. When there is lots of sucking and barely any swallowing (nearly empty!), be prepared to break the latch. Once he is off, you can re-offer the same side if he is keen. Or You can break the latch pre-emptively if you like and offer the other side.

If he does bite, I sat both DS1 and DS2 on the floor with a firm "No biting" and walked away for a minute. Yes, sometimes would scream hysterically. I would go back in, calm them down and resume the feed (if they were interested). Sometimes they wouldn't scream, which told me they were finished, biting out of boredom and I needed to watch them closer! In their various phases of biting, it only took a couple of days of being put on the floor with "No biting" immediately after a bite and they made the connection.

With DS2 I had dreadful trouble with his teeth always being bit in the same place. I ended up with broken skin and lots of pain. An LC I saw about his other issues earlier on said you can put a (long) piece of micropore tape over the breast where the teeth make contact. It doesn't seem to bother them latch wise and provides some amount of protection from their teeth. The piece of tape has to be very long so that it is more than the width of their mouth.

Hope this helps. Biting is awful. Be assured though, it is a phase and will pass.

[lakurumau]

Mine was biting down hard (luckily no teeth, so "gumming") at around 4 months. I'd take him off the breast, say firmly "no", and end the feed.

six weeks later he's not doing it any more :-) I'd like to think it was my method that did the trick...

[Funwith3]

Just another one to say that yes, it does pass. I BF one of my daughters for 16 months and she only bit for a little while when her first teeth were first coming through. Just be firm, pull straight off and say loudly NO.

[meggs1]

I also said "no biting" and put him on the floor for a minute. That quickly stopped the BF biting which I think he was just doing because it felt nice. Hasn't eliminated the occasional attempt to bite my neck when he doesn't want to go in his car seat.