Biting toddler

[Maggie05]

Hi, I was hoping to get some advice. My son is 17 months, and has always loved nursing. Yesterday the strangest (and most painful) thing happened. He began to bite me. Not at the end of a nursing session or when he was getting sleepy, but right at the start. Bite. Hard. He wasn't playing or teasing. I immediately removed him from the breast each time, and he would cry. If I tried to nurse again, bite. He usually nurses once or twice during the night, but same story at night time. Finally at five in the morning, he awoke. I tried to nurse him, and he nipped but then latched on and nursed for about ten minutes.
I really don't know what is going on and was hoping someone has experienced something similar. In the night, I thought, maybe this is his way of weaning, and I got really sad, thinking, this is not how I wanted to do it, I wanted it to be gentle. This is painful! Also, now my breasts are becoming engorged, and I fear mastitis. I loaned my breast pump to a friend with a newborn thinking I wouldn't need it
Well, any advice or help would be great. TIA

[liz-hippymom]

hmmm.. you should think of it like this-
your #1 priority should be not getting bit. would you let your husband try to take your nipple off? put him down quickly, and say very sternly "i will NOT let you bite me" .then get up and walk away. since he is biting once you give back the breast dont give it back till- PLEASE dont anyone flame me for this- he has cryed enough to change his mind about what he wants to do..sounds harsh , BUT biting is a SERIOUS offense. i can tell you you will be bright red the first time he takes a chunk out of a friend (my son has). the thing is if he took a chunk out of a friend you sure wouldnt let him get right up in biting range right after that.
when you do offer the breast again, tell him first ," be gentle if you want milk (or whatever you call it), NO biting or NO nursing"
if he does it again DONT GIVE IT BACK, offer juice, a hug ect.
about your supply and engorgment, borrow your pump back or hand express enough to keep from getting mastitis. this wont last forever and he will come back to nursing regularly and your breasts will accomidate.
hope this helps.

[eilonwy]

My guess would be one of two things. 1) He's teething and biting down becuase it helps the pain or 2) Your milk supply is less abundant than it was (perhaps you are pregnant?). We've had biting problems and I was almost always able to attribute it to one of those things. The only exceptions were when he was sick (would bite out of frustration that he couldn't breathe and nurse at the same time) and a brief period right after he got four teeth where he continued to bite once the teeth were out. My mother said that I had taught him that biting was the way to end a feeding (by instantly removing him from the breast when he bit me). I made an effort to remove him before the end and say "finished?" or "down?" and in two days he was ending feedings with "finish!" and I was in a lot less pain.

I agree that you can't let the baby bite you, but I had a really hard time listening to him cry. It really helps if you can get your partner to hold, feed, or distract him while you try to soothe your nipples. Good luck!

[manitoba_mommy]

Any ideas on how to stop it with a slightly younger baby? Samantha has just started doing this. She will nurse, bite, laugh and then cry when I say "OUCH!" then she will latch back on and repeat cycle. She only does this when she is totaly awake, like it is a game, and I am getting realy sick of haveing to keep one finger ready for instant de-latch.

She is too young for explinations to work so I am at a loss.
I don't remember this with Amy...

:

Help.

MM

[eilonwy]

Again, I think it's teeth. I had a really hard time stopping it, until the teeth actually came in. Weekends were easier; Eli could be distracted until he was ravenously hungry and then he would latch on and nurse without messing around. I also had a much easier time nursing him at night, because he doesn't bite while he's sleeping, just latches on and very quickly "empties" the breast.

I've heard one other suggestion, and that's instead of saying "Ouch!" and pulling the baby off, you pull the baby in close to your breast so that they can't breathe for a moment. They let go and learn to associate biting with not breathing and stop. I could never do this; I spent way too much time trying to find positions where Eli could breathe and nurse (I have scary huge breasts :LOL) but I've heard other mothers tell me it worked well for them.