Biting the boob....What to do?

[Lollie86]

DD has just started to bite me lately and its really starting to hurt! :(

Everytime she bites me she looks up and smiles so I say NO really firmly, but lately MIL has confused DD with the word NO. Everytime DD tries to get something she's not supposed to and I say NO firmly, MIL gives it to her and says "Yes you can have it". :hair:

I really dont know what to do...The thought of giving up bf has never even crossed my mind so thats not an option for me, I just really dont want DD to bite me anymore. :no:

Any advice?!

[the_queen]

Well, a) smack that MIL upside the head :hair:

b) :hugs: you poor thing, biting hurts and biting on the nipple hurts most of all.

c) I look at biting like drinking water through a straw. If you're thirsty, you drink. If you're not really thirsty, or you've had enough, you might play with the straw with your teeth, or bite it a little. So my view is, if a bub is biting, then she's not hungry anymore. So I would just say something like "oh you're not thirsty? OK let's play blocks". And then offer the boob again a bit later on.
Biting is usually just a way of testing out new teeth, and the thrill passes eventually.
Another tip is to really shove heaps of the aereola into her mouth. My boy is fed to sleep, and sometimes he will clamp down when he's sleeping, but because I shove it all right in, his teeth aren't biting on my sensitive nipple. So the older your darling girl gets, the bigger her mouth gets, the more breast you can shove in there, the less it will hurt. If that makes any sense :laughing:


oh and d) good on you for not even considering giving up BFing for this reason :yelclap: It will pass, I promise my boy is nearly 20 months and he went through his biting phase and now, like I said, only clamps down occasionally and it's not intentional. yay for B( . )( . )BIES!! :D

[Lollie86]

Thank you so much :hugs:

MIL just got back from O/S and wants to let DD do anything she wants but the damn woman doesnt listen to me so no more visiting until she listens to me. :p
I notice when she is really hungry she just drinks but when she is a bit fidgety she will bite and she has started to bite and then PULL away from me with my nipple still in her mouth! :eek:

Again thank you. :hugs:

[Charis]

Hiya Lollie86, yes my little one is just two weeks older and had an episode of biting around 8months!!!!! OWW A lot of the 'no' and not continuing feed, despite tears.. Yes it was really just a testing out teeth. But at the time I also thought about stopping b-fing. V glad I didn't too. Recently he's been biting at the end of each side..also have AF and the biting is much more prevalent now!??

I like the Queens stick more of it in, will try that one tomorrow :smiliedance: H bites then pulls like squeezing a tube of toothpaste..yes, excuricating. Robin Barker - BabyLove says not to feed them for a number of HOURS! Haven't done that strategy yet. But think it is a short lived thing, I try to praise him and stroke his head when he comes off properly..and sometimes try to pre-empt the biting with stroking his head so he comes off even more happy and relaxed (and Mummy too!) :goodvibes: Good luck. We're at Jan Birth Mums if you want to drop in :flowerz:

[the_queen]

Oh that nipple-pull is the WORST isn't it :eek:

A quick and relatively painless way to get her to unlatch is to block her nose - sounds a bit cruel I know, but it doesn't hurt her and it will get her off quick-smart.

[the_queen]

What Robin Barker says about waiting for a few hours - yeah I don't like the sound of that either BUT I think she's trying to say that bub will feed properly if she's really hungry, which is true. But I don't like the idea of "starving" the behaviour out of her. Then again, I just suggested blocking her nose to make her let go of your nipple :laughing:

Squeezing a tube of toothpaste :thumbsup: that is a great analogy.

[Nex]

Oh that nipple-pull is the WORST isn't it :eek:

A quick and relatively painless way to get her to unlatch is to block her nose - sounds a bit cruel I know, but it doesn't hurt her and it will get her off quick-smart.

:laughing::laughing::laughing:

I love this! It's a technique we use on the bottle fed calves to get the bottle back!

[Oscar's mum]

Apart from what others have said my best advice is to not make a big deal of it - don't yelp etc as then they begin to think it is a game and do it again.

[Lollie86]

Thanks everyone for the advice.:hugs:

Today she hasnt bitten me at all so Im thinking its like what the_queen said and she only does it if she is not hungry and just nibbling.

[OneNowOneLater]

I like the advice the_queen gave u lollie. my DD is a rat bag for biting too. when she's finished feeding, she'll bite down on the end of my nipple and looks at me with the evilest of grins. I'll say no, and most of the time she lets go. Why do babies have to think this is a game and funny??? GRRRR hahaha

[Grace3]

I screamed the first time DD bit me. (DS never did :yes:)

But I would pull her off and say, in a firm voice "NO biting" and put her down and walk away for a minute or two. In that minute she would be screaming. I would go to the toilet or check to see if my nipple was intact and then pick her up and continue feeding.

She eventually stopped bitting :thumbsup:

[twitch]

DD has started biting me too so thanks the_queen for the advice and Lollie for the thread. DD does the nipple pulling thing too and I say "No biting!" but DH thinks it's the funniest thing ever and they have a little laugh together :shame::hair: I'm going to try blocking her nose next time.

[Beany]

Ah you poor thing :hugs:

I went with my natural reaction. When he bit, I screamed - not AT him but in pain. He looked up at me and did the whole crumple faced cry thing.

I never treated it as a joke and my husband would have received a firm bite from me had he done so (I'm serious. I really would bite the bugger and show him just how "hilarious" it is).

He has only bitten me a couple of times when he first started teething. I never persist with feeding him past the point where he's had enough as that would be just asking for a bite. Also, remain very firm when you admonish the baby. I would drop my voice low, hold eye contact and very firmly say "NO!" It's still my serious "no", the one that really means business and he definitely responds to it.

Good luck!