biting!

[happy1nluv]

Help! my 1 year old is biting to the point of drawing blood. I've started saying no, and pulling him off when he bites and my boobs healed enough to pump white, although they're still scabbed -- the result: past 2 days he's only nursed when he's woken in the middle of the night. I've been pumping at bedtime and feeding him a bottle... so im huge and uncomfy at the end of the day -- he's only nursed once (on wakeup), and i have no idea how to get over this.

He has 4 bottom teeth, and I think his top teeth are coming in, but they've been coming in for months now... I tried a nipple shield, and that worked the first time but now he just bites it off.. I've tried hylands teething tablets, and another brand before nursing, a frozen teether before nursing... nothing is working.

He has issues with gluten, dairy and soy so I don't know what to do... I dont want to wean. I'd like to wait it out if continuing like we are (me pumping at night, feeding in morning) will keep up enough of a supply to continue fulltime nursing once he gets over the biting... i'm not a good pumper so we'll see... in the meantime, i'd guess he's getting maybe 10 oz a day of bm. I'm making him a "smoothie' in the morning -- a small handful of cashews, ~ 1/2 tbsp hemp seeds, small piece of mango/blueberry/banana and water that he drinks throughout the day (about a sippy cup full.. he never had more than 1/4 of it til he started the biting thing - now i end up making another and he eats 1 1/4 - 1 1/2... do you think that will cover nutritional needs in the meantime? (he mostly eats plain fruits/veggies... some table food, but not much...)

I hate this... its soo much easier to know that food is fun and he's getting everything he needs from me...

[pbjmama]

If he is drawing blood with his bottom teeth he is unlatching. Is it always at a certain point like beginning or end of a nursing session? If it is you can keep a close watch and take him away from the breast before the bite?

[PGTlatte]

Our DS1 went through a time of biting me after he had been nursing for a few minutes. After a couple times I noticed he had kind of an intense look right before he did it both times. I think he was trying to get my attention back to him. I started to watch him very closely when he nursed and make sure he knew he had my attention, and I decided to end the session whenever he started to get "that look".

[indigosky]

Biting is soooo awful! I remember crying in pain and frustration and wanting to throw my DD across the room. It did stop, and we are still happily nursing -- the biting days feel like a distant memory. So mostly, I wanted to tell you there is hope and it will not go on forever.

If I remember correctly, the two things that helped us were:

1) Saying "no biting" extremely calmly, putting her down immediately, and walking out of the room. Sometimes I'd send DP in to be with DD, or if she was safe I'd leave her to cry for a little (30 sec?). Then I'd come back and tell her, "If you bite Mama, then no nursing. You can nurse some more now, but no biting."

If I yelled, "NO!" or cried or gave her any kind of big emotional reaction, she didn't seem to mind. But being "abandoned" and losing the ability to nurse, that she minded! Having the instant, simple, calm consequence -- and doing this consistently for a while -- helped a lot.

2) While this was going on, I'd always give her an appropriate teething toy/ring to hold while she was nursing. I'd tell her, "You can bite on the ring, don't bite on Mama." Often she would bite on it before she started nursing, or even take nursing breaks to bite. If I had to leave the room because she bit me, I'd give her the ring when I came back, and remind her of the rules. The re-direction of the biting to an appropriate toy seemed to help, too.

If you search the archives you'll find tons of stories and ideas.