baby pulling off nipple with closed mouth

[stel]

My two month old pulls off my nipple with his gums tight on my nipple and it is killing me. Sometimes he does this several times in a row. He doesn't seem to do this at night and besides that I can't figure out the variables. One lactation consultant said he was full but sometimes he does it when he first latches on to feed after several hours. Sometimes he has a burp but other times he doesn't seem to. Sometimes he does it and then cries, other times he seems happy just latching on and off. He isn't distracted and I've tried putting a covering over us, going to a quiet room, etc. I could tolerate the latching on and off as irritating only if he would only open his mouth when he comes off - the quick head snap back with my nipple clenched tight makes me cry sometimes. I say "ouch". Any thoughts or suggestions? - it makes breastfeeding really hard sometimes.

[Llyra]

My DD2 and DS both did that, at about the same age. What I learned, after watching the situation carefully, was that they were doing it either at the start of a feed, when my milk hadn't let down yet, or during a feed when the flow had slowed and they were trying to elicit another letdown. The trouble was, it worked-- if they tugged enough, in exactly the way you describe, I would let down, and of course that only encouraged them to do it again.

It's a common age for irritating nursing behaviors, because it's a common age for growth spurts, and for babies emerging from the newborn stage. Newborns, when the flow slows, will often just doze off, but once baby gets to a few months old, a slow letdown will cause baby to become impatient, and show that impatience by engaging in these kinds of behaviors-- kicking, arching, unlatching and relatching, yanking and tugging, etc.

So I would consider whether baby is tugging to try to elicit letdown, or speed the flow of milk. I don't have any solution to offer, unfortunately, except that my kids eventually did quit doing that. They moved on to using their fists to pound on my chest, and kicking their legs, which apparently are great ways to get the milk to start flowing sooner.

If it really bugs you, you can unlatch baby after it happens, say firmly but quietly that it hurts you, and put baby down briefly. If nothing else, it lets you recover your patience for a minute.

It's early for teething, but it's still possible too that baby is having some gum tenderness. Some kiddos start teething very early. All of my kids clamped and bit some when they were teething.

[stel]

Thank you for responding. I will try to pay attention to whether it might be during let downs. He does seem like a bit of an impatient guy sometimes so there could be something to that - also it happens when he is awake not usually during the nighttime drowsy feeds so it would make sense that he is more impatient then. He definitely seems to be on growth spurt wearing clothes one day and two days later they don't fit... It would be very nice if it stopped soon! And PLEASE don't let it be teething - I am not ready for teeth!

[KermitII63]

I totally feel for you stel--the exact same thing started happening with my four month old. I had completely forgotten about sore nipples before he started popping on and off with no apparent rhythm. He did it a bunch of times one night and it was so hard for me to feed him on that breast the next day. Ouch! Let's hope both our babies lose this habit quickly. One thing I do is when I sense it coming, I hold my free hand across his back firmly. That takes a bit of the force out of the "Pop!"

[MeredithK]

I totally could have written your post. My DS is 3 months and just started to do the same thing. Yesterday he did it so bad that I actually had to look to see if he had done some serious damage.

For us, it seems to come at the end of nursing. I have been trying to keep a firm hand on his back and have my finger ready at his mouth to release my nipple from his mouth if he starts to do it.

Good luck to us all...it hurts so much!!

[sunnygir1]

My dd used to do this too. I could usually catch it before she did too much damage if I really payed attention and kept my hands at the ready as a pp mentioned. I would hold her firmly to my body with one hand and open her mouth with a finger of the other hand. I would say "open your mouth". I don't know if it helped her learn or not, but I think it did.

Teething is the worst, though. Dd was teething by 4 months, and she would clamp down sometimes so hard it made me cry. I think it was because her gums hurt, though.