when baby gets teeth!

[Snapdragon]

First time mom of a 7 month old baby boy. He is just getting his first two bottom teeth- they are halfway in. In the past 2 days he had accidentally bitten me a couple of times while nursing. OUCH!! Is this something I am going to have to handle for the rest of our breastfeeding time? I find it painful and scary! He doesn't know he is doing it. I am concerned it will just get worse as he gets more teeth.
How do people handle this thing? It isn't a matter of telling him not to do it as it is not intentional on his part. So does it get better or worse as their teeth continue to come in?
Does breastfeeding become a painful bitten thing from this point out? I sure hope not as I was planning to breastfeed for a couple of years.

[KoalaMommy]

most babies seem to learn that biting mama is a bad idea.

With my 8 month old son I switch sides when he bites the first time and we're done when he bites the 2nd.

[Snapdragon]

I am sort of confused about how they can avoid biting while nursing! I am also confused about how to know if the baby knows he is biting or not. I feel like- don't the teeth just get in the way of the sucking automatically? How can biting on his part be avoided?

[Marissamom]

Don't put up with biting and it will stop. The times DD bit me I de-latched her for 20-30 seconds. if she did it again we were done for at least several minutes. I think she maybe bit me a total of ten times, though some babies learn faster or slower.

if baby is latched correctly and actively nursing, then they don't bite. you may feel teeth a bit, and when new teeth come in it may make you sore, but actually biting down is something completely different.

[baby-makes-3]

DD was a horrible biter, starting at 5 months. I tried everything mentioned in this and other forums, and it didn't help, and I was miserable, literally fearing nursing.

Depending on the child, sometimes what happens is that because you react so strongly to the biting, they sort of enjoy the reaction and will do it again. Not out of meaness of course, it's just that they learn that they have the power of cause and effect..

I finally came up with a solution that worked. Whenever she bit, I would put my thumb and forefinger on the outside of her cheeks and (probably uncomfortably for her) would literally 'de-latch' her mouth. Every time. Of course you learn your child, and I could tell when a bite was coming. Eventually all I had to do was put my fingers close to her cheeks when I saw this and she would not bite, eventually stopping altogether.

Our bf relationship lasted 33 months and was smooth sailing after that.

[MamaPhD]

DD bit me a couple of times when she got her first 2 teeth, I thikn around at 8-9 months old. What I did was to put my pinky into one corner of her mouth to unlatch her, look at her eyes and calmly tell her "no biting". No screaming or yelling, please! After a few moments, re-latch. Then repeat if she bit again. At first she just looked at me like "wait, why was I intterupted just now?" After a few days, she had enough of the interruptions and stopped biting. Pretty much no more biting until we weaned around 18 months with many more teeth. Nursing a baby with teeth doesn't hurt generally. One exception was sometimes DD will get kinda lazy and not latch on as far in as before (didn't open her mouth big enough), then I could kinda feel the teeth rubbing against my areola. Then just unlatch & then re-latch while encouraging DD to open WIIIIIIDE.

[skfmama]

bumping this...

i'm in a similar situation. i don't think my son (7.5 mo, two bottom teeth in the past 2 weeks or so) means to do this, but when he first latches on, he starts with bite. it's worse when he's in a hurry to nurse (either i took longer than normal to get ready or he's hungry). it's only with the initial latch - if he pulls off to look around or whatever, when he comes back on there isn't a bite. and the rest of the nursing session is normal, with a normal, comfortable latch. so i'm not sure how to deal with this - should i unlatch him immediately? i'm afraid if i do it'll make him more frantic and make it worse.

thanks!

[THBVsMommy]

My DD got her first two teeth within a day of eachother, at 6 months. We've had a handful of biting incidents, but none in the past couple months (she's nearly 10 months old). I've found that she only bit me when she was full/done nursing. When she was latched on correctly and actively nursing she never bit. The times she bit, I would firmly say "Ouch! No biting", unlatch her, and sit her upright facing out. If she didn't fuss, then I knew she was done eating. If she did start to fuss, I'd quickly put her back to the breast.

I'm sure our biting days are far from over with, but it seems to only be an issue when she's teething badly. Good luck, Mama.

[Mom2M]

With both of my DD's, whenever a tooth was coming in, it seemed like they adjusted their latch and it was sore but it would take a few days and then be fine.
With DD2, she had 8 teeth at 9 months and accidentally bit me once...it hurt so much and I didn't expect it and yelled OW! really loud. I felt so bad because it made her cry. She never bit me again like that, though. Sometimes she'll play around while nursing and look at me kind of laughing and nipping her teeth a little bit but not to hurt.

[wishin'&hopin']

My 6 month old has 5 (!) teeth now and had his first 2 by four months of age. That said, he has only rarely bitten and I've been able to keep from reacting which means he isn't looking for a response when he does "get me"...and I feel like the occasions when he has bitten were accidental on his part. What I did was note when he was most likely to nip and keep my finger perched next to his lips, ready to delatch if needed (for my guy it's towards the end of nursing and usually when he's getting sleepy). At this point, all it takes is placing my finger next to the corner of his mouth and he resumes sucking as opposed to testing his chompers! Teeth aren't involved in the mechanics of nursing, so if he's actually eating I don't worry at all. He just got his first top tooth in (last night, feel free to throw me a pity party!) and I've found that after the inital couple of teeth came in he's actually gotten better about not nipping. Good luck!

[JenChaffee]

When the bottom teeth appeared, they were biting me. I would clench my teeth and nicely try to tell them to stop that. One of them would giggle and bite again as if she considered it a game. So, I changed my tactic, and it worked quickly. I would yelp loudly each time. I think it startled them, and they stopped biting. I think that they want to play, but they don't want to hurt mama.

Now, one baby is getting her top teeth, and I have been nipped a few times again. I guess that with each change, they have to relearn how to do it without hurting me.

[ladyleah]

My little guy is almost 11 months old and has 6 teeth (first ones at 4.5 monrhs, and rest around 6/7 months). I have gotten a few nasty (feeling) bites over the course of time but they have usually been when:
1. He is teething in a major way
2. His nose is stuffed up and he is frustrated that he can't suck out the milk (only once did this happen, thank goodness)
3. He is done feeding, and I keep offering my breast to him (obviously, this didn't happen again after I figured out what was going on).

The other few were "tests"--and most of the time I didn't react except to calmly remove him from my breast and say "no bite", and end the nursing session. The one time I reacted, he laughed--and I thought I was doomed-- but thankfully I was more prepare to NOT react next time.

Other then the few bites, teeth have not changed the nursing relationship-- he adjusted what he needed to, and nursing is in no way uncomfortable or painful for me.

Hope this helps!