Breast pinching- need advice

[babygrey]

I didn't know whether to post this in general bf'ing forum or here, but DD is just past her one year mark and all my IRL nursing support has vanished so thought I'd ask here from moms who've btdt for awhile. I nursed my ODS well past infancy, but never had a problem like this.

In the past few weeks, DD has started pinching, grabbing and hanging on to my breast tissue while she's nursing. I think it is a comfort behavior, bc she's always nursed with her hands near her face- she just one day started grabbing and pinching me. It is really painful, honestly.

DD still nurses probably 75% of her nutrition, plus she's a super comfort nurser, she's probably latched 50% of the day so this is getting to be a really frustrating problem. My breasts are literally red and raw from her nails.

First, I tried the serious, stern "no, no" but that was a bad cycle, bc it would really upset her and then she would want to nurse for comfort and then she'd pinch and grab harder.

She's not really attached to any lovies or blankets, but I've tried putting both blankets and toys in her hand. The toys were a disaster, bc then she just started swinging them around and hitting me in the face with them and, well, somehow she manages to still pinch and grab my breast with a blanket in her hand.

ouch. Any advice on how to get her stop? What can encourage her to do with her little hands instead of pinch and grab me??

[tinybutterfly]

What about a nursing necklace? Or can you hold her little hand with your hand and play with her fingers to distract her? Good luck!

[HaikuMommy]

I have the same sort of problem -- my 22 month old wants to squeeze, pinch, pull mr breasts all day, even when not nursing. She has been this way for 8 months now! I'm so over it!

I twirl my hair a lot, and I think this is the same sort of habit. I've even tried to get her to touch her own hair in place of pinching me but no luck yet. If she wakes in the night and comes to sleep with me, she will give my nipple a sudden hard pinch in the middle of the night -- even in her sleep! A horible rude awakening at 3am, let me tell you.

Sorry I have no solutions, only commiserating.

[lifeguard]

Ds has been a pincher since he got control of his hands & can get quite agitated if I stop his hands but as it hurts & aggravates me a whole lot I've tried many things. Replacing with toys, necklace, blankets, etc. has not worked for us at all but I have had some success with the following:

-placing his hand on his ear - sometimes he'll play with that for a bit.
-I always pin the bottom arm so that at least I am only dealing with one hand that I can see - those sneak attacks from underneath can send me around the bend.
-Sometimes I can hold his hand still - this works especially well when he is calm & sleepy.
-Moving his hand to a less sensitive spot (he likes to get his fingernails right into the edge of my areola)
-Allowing it when he is pinching a large chunk but removing his hand for small bits (it hurts a lot more imo when he gets a teeny bit of skin between his nails than when he grabs a handful).

I wish I could say there was a cure-all but I've been working on the pinching for over a year - something about just seems to be very instinctive so I've resigned myself to keeping it to a level that is tolerable.

Oh, & for the record I make these corrections hundreds of times a day some days.

[D_McG]

DD does the same thing. Esp if she's tired and trying to keep herself awake. I never allow it and yet about a year later she'll still try! It drives me crazy. And none of the distraction stuff works (never did for either of my kids). So, I move her hand and remind her no pinching and if she persists we're done. Maybe it sounds cold but if she wants to nurse badly enough she'll stop pinching! I have found that if she persists with the pinching she's as heppy to do something else instead. It's like she's sabotaging

[luvmy2grls]

My Nolan is a pincher too, I simply take his hand and say no, and if he keeps on or gets mad cause I won't let him, I end the nursing sesion yet to really work though haha

[Bellabaz]

dd2 has been doing this for the past month or so too. I just keep taking her hands off when she pinches. It deosn't change much cuz as soon as i move my hand she pinches again.

[BecksMom]

I have a mighty pincher. He's almost 18 months old, and has been a pincher forever. He bruises me like you wouldn't believe. My epiphany: put his binky in the pinch hand. He plays with it instead of focusing on me as much! It has REALLY helped.

[July09Mama]

My 9 month old does this too. Fortunately she is still swaddled to sleep so I just try to nurse her mostly when she's going down and then she can't. Probably doesn't help you though. For what it's worth, I read somewhere that they do it to stimulate the breast so they get a faster let-down.

[sundaya]

Yeah, my DD gets really agitated when I stop her, especially at night. During the day, she'll usually be distracted. This won't help with stopping it, but it helps me not be injured during the night- I file her fingernails. Just cutting them leaves them still with some sharp spots, but if I file them with an emery board, they're smooth.