AGGHH, now he's biting in his sleep also....teething?? nursing stike??

[Cartesia]

OK so my LO has been biting almost every time he nurses for almost a month. It sucks. (Or doesn't suck ha ha).

The exception was when he was very sleepy or asleep. For the past few nights, he has been biting then, also. He wants to nurse, but then he bites.

He has NO other signs of teething. He isn't chewing on stuff during the day and he is in a super great mood all the time. But he is 11.5 months, so maybe something is going on with the molars??

I have tried lots of things (including pulling his face into my breast) and the only thing that seems to help is if I praise him a lot when he nurses well and also open my mouth wide when he first latches. Any of the "corrections" make him upset and then he wants to nurse again right away and immediately bites even harder. It seems to work best if we end on a good note, so when he bites I super-casually pop him off and distract him.

Oh, and he does nurse better if I bounce on a physio ball while nursing. That's the only way I could put him to sleep tonight, even though he wanted to nurse in bed.

So, can biting while nursing be the only symptom of teething?
and...can biting while nursing be the main manifestation of a nursing strike??

I guess I could try giving him motrin and see if that makes a difference. I just hate to give him motrin if I don't know for sure that he is in pain.

whadya think, mamas?

[namistenicole]

I don't know that motrin would help if he doesn't seem like he's in pain. My LO did bite (nibble) in her sleep for a few days while she was teething recently. I don't know about your LO but it seems like when my daughter bites it's on accident; and it seems like she is trying to figure out how to latch with all these new teeth in her mouth. So maybe that's why it helps when you open wide for the first latch, to help him re-learn how to latch with teeth.

If he isn't biting hard, I'd try to relax and focus on latch.

Sorry I can't help more mama! Good luck, it will pass.

[Cartesia]

yeah, it does seem possibly accidental to me but it isn't nibbling it is HARD biting... Also, I don't know how to focus on the latch in the dark when he is half asleep...