Biting

[LeaPea]

My 11 month old daughter is biting me while nursing, and it's killing me!! Her
nursing has been weird this past week. She will want to nurse, then seem bored
by it. Then she chomps away, sometimes at the beginning, sometimes in the
middle, and sometimes at the end. I will say no biting, and remove her, but she
doesn't seem to mind. Then she will cry to nurse again, and the same thing
happens. She is teething right now. Also, I just started my period for the first
time since I had her. Could it be teething, or could my period be messing with
my supply? Right now I cringe every time I see her mouth coming towards me :(

[Thandiwe]

Oh mama, I've been there!  My 3rd baby is a biter.  He has always been a biter.  I tried everything that worked with my first 2 and nothing worked.  It took time to work through it.  I found that I would take him off the breast as soon as he bit, sternly look him in the eyes and tell him no, and then set him down.  If he cried wanted right back up again to nurse, which usually happened/happens, I would look him in the eyes, tell him, sternly again, "no bite or no nurse."  I'd let him nurse again, but then as soon as he bit, same routine over again, setting him down yet again.  It helped over time and he's better. 

I wish I had better advice for you.  I'm sorry!  Maybe someone else will have some better advice, but this is what has *helped* us, though not completely eliminated it.

[LeaPea]

Thanks, not what I wanted to hear, but thanks for responding!! How do you deal with the pain? She just climbed into my lap crying, wanting to nurse. She goes to latch on, then bites the crap out of me. I don't know how to get through this

[hildare]

my own dd made the connection between biting = no nursing...

is it possible that she hasn't yet connected the word with the action?  if that is a possibility then you can try to teach that quickly with a piece of apple or something.  you can't tell her not to do something if she doesn't get what it is you're telling her not to do...

can you give some pain relief meds or some ice or frozen breastmilk in a meshie before the nursing session?  that might help.  or if not, can you pump and cup feed and then nurse at night?  the babes tend to not bite during night feeding sessions. 

they say to also keep your hand on the back of the baby's head and if biting starts, pull them closer and they cannot bite, and just be at the ready to unlatch if it looks like it's about to happen otherwise at the end of the session. 

i wouldn't suffer through it at any rate. 

[Thandiwe]

You know what I was just thinking about?  About 8/9 months old, my biter was biting while latching.  It wasn't manipulative, but it was hard to realize that.  It was just happening.  Turns out, he had a tight upper frenulum and it was really starting to be obvious with more teeth growing.  It wasn't until he accidentally fell and split that upper tie that things got better.  I'm struggling to find links for you, but I do remember reading that it often becomes a noticeable problem once their teeth start coming in.  It can cause nursing pain and biting.  And I know in our case it improved once he accidentally fell while learning to walk and split it on his own.