Help! He's trying to pull my nipple off!!!

[Curlyfry7]

I am looking for any ideas to put a stop to this....when nursing, my DS (14 weeks) will latch on, suck once or twice, then clamp his lips together and then pull off the nipple (with lips still clamped), usually stretching my nipple out as he does so. He will do this over and over until I have to remove him from the breast. And then he is upset as he still wants to nurse. There does not seem to be any rhyme or reason to when he does it, and I don't feel like he old enough to learn not to do it by anything I may do (I could be wrong about this though) But it hurts like a you-know-what and I am DREADING when he gets teeth if he is still doing this.

Any ideas? Please???? Thank you!

[Mama2ChicknLil]

My son does this, thigh after he's been eating for a while. He's 6 weeks and compensating for my oversupply and overactive letdown...hows your supply?

[tincia]

I was thinking about starting a thread about this too. My son is 6 months and has 2 teeth about to come through at any moment..this scares me greatly! I don't have any advice, but I think this is quite common, not sure what we can do about this though!

[mugglesmom]

My son does this too.  I unlatch him as soon as he starts it hoping that will teach him that it's not ok but he still does it so I'm not sure what else to do. 

Sorry I don't have much to offer.  Hopefully someone else will have some good advice.

[sunwise]

I dealt with this with my DS when he was younger - I think we have overcome it by now (14 months). When he was really young (before he had teeth), I basically just let him do it and never tried to change that behavior. But then, when his teeth started coming in (around 8.5 months), I really regretted never addressing it when there were no teeth! I got several bites/scratches from the way he scraped his teeth along my nipples. And then I still had to nurse him, even with open sores! Very painful!

What I started to do was this - if he scraped me, we had to stop nursing for at least a few minutes, so that he could get it through his head that there was a consequence to doing that. (I never denied him a nursing session that he needed - just made him wait until he could start again.) Also, I started nursing with my pinky stationed right by the corner of his mouth, so if he even made the slightest move like he was about to bite, he was unlatched. It really only took a few days for these strategies to work, and now he knows not to pull on my nipple like that. (Good thing too, since now there are 8 teeth there!) It's been months since he's done it.

I know my DS was older than yours when we started doing this, but I do think that these kind of actions could be useful even with a 14 week old. I think that they have at least a rudimentary understanding of cause and effect, especially when the effect is feeding-related!

[AnkaJones]

My DS is about the same age as yours, and we had the same problem a couple of weeks ago.  It hurts like heck, doesn't it?  Anyway, what I did was if he did it, even once, I'd say "Ouch!  That hurts mommy!" [yeah, I know he didn't understand what I was saying, but I needed to remind myself that's why I was doing it so I didn't feel like I was being a horibble mother] and set him down on his play mat on the floor.  If he cried, I'd give him kisses and pats, but no nursies.  I'd pick him up and offer the breast again after a couple of minutes.  It didn't take very long (like 2-3 days) before he stopped doing it. 

I know someone here is going to object because this seems like a cry it out technique, but he was actually causing nipple damage, and before I did this he would do it like 6 or 7 times until we were both in tears.

Anyway, hope it helps if you're as desperate as I was.  He's still distractable at this age, but he's careful to unlatch before he whips his head around.

Anka

[Curlyfry7]

Ok, finally able to respond again to this thread.

For my supply-I had quite an oversupply, +/- OALD, but this seemed to settle down around 10-11 weeks-not so much gulping/choking, was getting less when I pumped. So not sure if it's still playing a role or not...it's certainly possible!

Yeah I'm going to have to get stern (but not mean of course!) with him-with as hard as he's biting down & pulling, I'm going to have some serious damage even before teeth come in. I'll try the unlatch & remove technique.

I *THINK* he is doing it when he wants to suck but doesn't want milk. ??? But he won't accept a pacifier or even my finger really, so he's going to have to figure it out! Hopefully he will understand soon......

[AnkaJones]

My LC said (but when DS was much younger) that some newborns clampdown as a reflex if they're getting drowned by a forceful letdown.  Smart baby, slows the flow.  I'm not sure whether that could be in play at this age, though?  Maybe one of the more knowledgeable moms can weigh in.  If it is that, you could do all the standard stuff for overforceful letdown -- lean back, for instance, so it's shooting out against gravity.

Anka

[MindfulBirth]

It is rather age-appropriate for a 3-6 month old baby to want to look around and play with the nipple and be very distracted by nursing. Don't loose hope, there are some things you can try.  One is to nurse in a darkened location with no distractions (pull the curtains, close the door, etc). Hold your baby close and look in his eyes and talk to him while he nurses so that his attention is on you.    Some moms like to wear a nursing necklace (large, chunky beads) that the baby can grab at while nursing - again, to keep his attention close to your body.

Another position you can try is the down-under position. If he is suddenly having problems with an oversupply (which is rather unlikely at this age - more common with younger babies), it will help to ease the flow.. and if that is not the case.. well, it will be much more difficult for him to pull back to far or too suddenly from that position. 

Best wishes