Hi! I'm delurking since no one else seem to have advice to share. The good news? My son and I had this same issue, struggled with it for a long time, but overcame it and still have a great nursing relationship. The bad news? The way we finally solved it isn't one I really want to advocate to other people :\
We had this problem for over a year. From around 9 months to one year old it was on and off, then it just got so bad I was ready to wean him. It was obvious that he was not ready to wean, but eventually our nursing relationship became so angry and resentful that I didn't know what else to do. He would bite me as hard as he could all the time, and often would clamp down and not let go. Numerous time a day.
At first I would unlatch him and say "No, do not bite!" but that did not make one bit of difference. A friend of mine who is a mother of four said that when her daughter bit she would unlatch her and set her on the floor. I would do that and refuse to nurse again for a while and he would cry, and when I would eventually nurse him again he would bite me again. I think this tactic helped a little, but not much in the long run. Also, biting frequently occurred while we were laying down to sleep or for a nap. Since he would not (and still won't) fall asleep without nursing, it wasn't practical to enforce this every time.
I tried pulling him in close to me so that he couldn't breathe and would have to unlatch, but I think this only works on smaller babies. My son would just clamp down harder and by the time he unlatched I'd be ready to pass out from the pain.
I would also try not to react, though that it pretty hard to do when you're not sure if your nipple is still attached to your body
Lots of things I read said that babies and toddler may bite because they like the reaction, or think it's funny. Being that my son would sometimes laugh after biting me I thought this might be the case, but reaction or no he continued to bite.
I tried to figure out if there was a less obvious reason he was biting that could be addressed. Teething, boredom, not feeling well, not enough attention....? I couldn't find any reason. I tried to anticipate when he was going to bite by watching him closely, but there was no warning and I just wound up frustrating us both by unlatching him every 5 seconds (and I usually got my finger bitten, too).
I asked his doctor, who is very pro-extended breastfeeding, and she said she had no idea and to contact LLL. I contacted them, listed everything I had tried, and asked for help. The lactation consultant wrote back and said (in a very nice, apologetic way) "sounds like you've tried everything, good luck." I googled my fingers off, came up with very little. I asked other moms, including my midwife/lactation consultant and the general consensus was "it'll pass"...cold comfort when your situation is so extreme and been going on for a year
Finally, as a last resort, I tried a tactic and it worked. I'll preface this by saying it was a *last resort*. We do not spank our son or do any kind of corporal punishment, and I felt bad about even trying this...but. When he would bite I would unlatch him and flick his nose just enough to surprise him and tell him not to bite. After a few minutes he would be allowed to nurse again, and if he bit again he'd get another flick and be done for a while. It worked like magic. Biting seriously decreased after a few days, then stopped entirely. Since then he's bitten me only twice (when he didn't want to go to bed), and that's it. We have a great nursing relationship now!
I hope one of the more gentle tactics works for you, hopefully it will since you're addressing the issue early. LLL has an email form on their website where you can ask a lactation consultant for help if you'd like to ask them some questions yourself. In all of my research this was the only website I found helpful:
http://custommademilk.wordpress.com/...ddler-nursing/
Good luck, keep us posted on how it's going!
