7 mo baby - so ferocious!

[remijo]

My babe has been doing this for some time now but she's getting bigger and its starting to hurt. My forearms are bruised from her pinching me. I have to stay on top of trimming her nails or I have scratches all over my face. She attacks my breast when she nurses - grabbing on with both hands and pulling my nipple to her mouth and then pinching me or scratching me while she nurses. She attacks her toys too - which is really kind of cute since it doesn't hurt.

She has so much energy - when holding her, I have to hold her up so that she can stand -she refuses to sit still. I have tendonitis in both wrists because she is so squirmy. She is finally starting to crawl so that she is getting a little energy out but is there anything else I can do for her? She's a relatively happy baby so its not really anger - more like frustration I think.

[Quinalla]

Have you tried giving her something to hold while nursing? My girl isn't as bad while nursing as yours, but she does occasionally try to pinch or get really squirmy and giving her a toy or her lovey blanket really helps.

As for other times scratching and pinching, I try to prevent and redirect to gentle touches and sometimes I see if she just wants to be on the floor or in her jumperoo (something you might try at a friends if you can, my daughter loves jumping so much, gets energy out too!). When she was younger, she wanted to be with me 24/7, but now she sometimes wants down but doesn't communicate this in a way I can understand yet, sometimes squirmy/grabbing/scratching/etc. are her way of trying to tell me

[chel]

my 7m is a pincher, too. drives her big sis crazy
keeping the nails trim helps, but yeah, lots of bruises.
also likes to pinch nipples, mine and dd1, through shirts when she's being carried.