So painful, someone help, please

[JamesMama]

James is 18 months old, he has all his teeth up to his 1 year molars, not sure about 2 year molars.

Here lately he's been doing this thing where he goes *latch, suck, halfway unlatch, suck, latch, suck, halfway unlatch suck* all really quickly, it's almost like he's smacking his lips on my nipple. It hurts so bad. My poor nipples are red and cracked.

I can't get him to just latch and stay latched. It's to the point now where I'm unlatching him more than I'm nursing him. I give him 3 tries and then I make him stop because it's just too painful, it's been a couple days since I was actually able to fully nurse him...I don't want this to lead to weaning, but I think it might. I wondered if it was his teeth so I've been giving him Hylands but that doesn't seem to help. He's not running a fever or pulling on his ears so I don't think that is it. He's been doing it for about a week now.

There is no LLL in my area.

[4daughters]

I remember my kids doing that as well and I'd get frustrated. When he does this explain that it hurts you, they understand more than we think at this age. I would take him off everytime he does this and soon it'll click that if he does this he can't nurse. Perhaps spacing your nursing a little may help, so he doesn' t want to snack and is hungry enough to really nurse. It's another stage to get through. it should get better. As for your boobs air them out. Good luck to you.