I can't get my 12mo to stop biting!

[bluedaisy]

My dd is almost a year and for the past 2 1/2 weeks she's been biting. She got her first teeth at 4 months and we've had a few periods of biting since then, but this one is the longest and the most painful by far. she has 12 teeth now.

when she bites, I press her face into my breast which makes her clamp down harder initially, but eventually she pulls off. then i put her down and say something like, "no biting, that hurts mama" and walk away. if i'm putting her to sleep, i put her in the crib and leave the room for a few seconds. today she was really screaming when I did that, i hate hearing her scream but i don't know what else to do.

sometimes she bites towards the beginning of a feeding, most of the time after she's been sucking for a while.

i often sing or talk to her while i'm nursing, and i don't watch tv, read a book, etc so i don't think she's doing it for attention because she always has my attention when she's nursing.

she recently got 4 back teeth and "skipped" over four teeth, so those teeth might be coming through now, i can never get my fingers in there to feel her gums.

today she bit at almost every.single.feeding. my nipples are so sore. clearly what i'm doing is not working, but i don't know what else to do.

help!

[sbrinton]

My almost one year old is biting a lot too!!

He's teething (just has 2 bottom teeth and is working on the top 2) and I know chewing on things feels good to him. But I'm ready to throw in the towel and be done breastfeeding if he keeps biting me.

The only time I can feed him right now if he's half-asleep and there are no distractions.

[Wisteriacow]

Yikes. DS just went through a biting phase about a month ago when his eye teeth started coming in. I found that if I ended the session after a bite, he was more likely to bite me again the next time. I've had the best luck with pushing his face in until he lets go, gently saying no bite, and then letting him continue to nurse until he's done. Anything else and it seemed to turn into a battle of wills. I do have to make sure I'm constantly watching him or else he seems more likely to "test" me. Good luck!

[Cartesia]

Ooooh, this is happening with my LO too! I posted about it a few weeks ago. He is just under a year.

Yeah, if I end nursing when he bites, he seems to bite right away the next time while looking at me right in the eyes, almost puzzled.

What seems to be helping is praising him when he nurses well, even if it is only for a few seconds. He laughs and claps his hands and seems pleased with himself when I do this.

Also, I tell him to open wide and show him with my mouth, then say "good nursing, thank you!". When he does bite, I have better luck downplaying it and saying very casually, "oh, no biting sweetie", popping him off and immediately moving on to something fun. When I tried to be more intense with the "no" I think it created more and more biting attempts.

BUT, I must say, he does seem to be choosing food over nursing because most of the time he bit was when he started signing FOOD and I offered him the boob first. Sometimes now he will sign NURSE, then nurse for a few seconds, pull off, laugh and sign FOOD. This seems very clear to me. If I push the nursing, he gets upset or bites.

So, he is only nursing 2-3 times during the day now (but still 4-6 times at night). My supply seems great - I've been pumping in case this a temporary phase. I've also offered him my milk in bottles and sippy cups but that doesn't seem to make any difference.

He LOVES food (he ate 4 ounces of trout and a whole squash for dinner yesterday) and I even though I would like him to be nursing more, I don't think I can withold food to try to get him to drink more milk, right??? Especially since he is very clear with his signs when he wants milk versus water versus food.

So....our nursing may not last as long as I thought it would.....but hopefully he will just continue at this rate for a nice long time....