BF Mommies - do they bite your boobies??

MomofTay&Sam wrote: Sammy is bottle fed but he will bite me any chance he gets! I know he is teething by the way he tries to eat me. I say NO and he cries. Do your babies bite your boobies? How do you deal with BFing and teething???

kit_kats_mom replied: OUCH!!

Yes she does and it HURTS! I've heard that not reacting and pulling them into you (totally against all reflexes) that they will release you in order to breathe. Katherine will release me but she looks up at me and giggles like it is her favorite game. I've noticed that it gets worse when she is teething but she will often nip me unexpectedly. Another tip is to not let them nurse any longer than when they are actively eating. K tends to bite when I let her linger over her dinner and she is just comfort nursing. I've been bit a couple of times upon latching on but that's been pretty rare.

I use neosporin on my injured boobies and they heal pretty quickly.

Of course, I'm still getting bit so perhaps you should not listen to my advice

I have started to say "no" very firmly and put her in her crib for 1 mintue whenever she bites me now. She hates her crib and it is the only "punishment" I can think of that I can stand to do. she bites, I say "no biting, that hurts mommy" and I put her in her crib. She screams bloody murder while I stand next to her and tell her "no bite" then I pick her up and we resume.
So far, that hasnt' worked either.

MomToMany replied: Hannah has only bitten me a couple of times when she first started teething. I immediately took her off and said, "No! That hurts mommy!" Then I set her on the floor for a little bit. She got the point, I guess, as she only did it a few times after that. She hasn't bitten me since; I guess she didn't want hem getting too far away from her !

Kirstenmumof3 replied: Claudia only has only bit me a few times while nursing, I just latched her off and put her on the floor. She only drew blood once, but it healed pretty quickly. When she was teething she used to bite my shoulders (she would also do this when she was angry or upset), but has outgrown this! THANK GOD!

supermom replied: Yes, they do bite, and yes, it does hurt.

I used, very successfully, the "pull in so they can't breathe" method with all four (so far) - now watch Emily make me out a liar this time around. I never said anything else to them, I was lucky enough to "feel" it coming. Yes, it was hard to remember to do that, but it definately worked for me....

aspenblue1 replied: Isabella has bitten me and it does hurt. I also use the pull in so they can't breathe method then I would sit her down for a minute. She would do it when she was fighting to go to sleep.

MommyToAshley replied: Ashley has only bitten me once and it wasn't really while I was nursing her. I think she was around 5 or 6 months. I had asked her if she wanted to nurse and she wanted to and got "in the nursing position" Well, DH distracted me with a question about work and I started talking to him. I guess she was hungry because she bit me through the bra. LOL I guess she was trying to teach me not to offer up the goodies if I am not going to give them to her.

There was another time when she started to nurse while she was still trying to talk... let's just say we won't do that again.

But, she has never bitten me while nursing her (knocking on wood)

amynicole21 replied: Sophia's done it a few times, but not as often as I worried she might. I've had people tell me the quit bfeeding when the baby got teeth, but in my opinion the benefit far outweighs the risk of being bitten. Maybe I'm just lucky that I haven't been bitten that badly

DansMom replied: Daniel had only bitten me a couple of times until recently. He's just gotten his two uppers and one more coming in, and it feels like he nips a bit almost every time he latches on---not hard enough to make me scream, just hard enough to get an ouch! As soon as he hears that he lightens up though. I think he's just adjusting to how his teeth affect his latch approach. Also, I agree that he's more likely to bite for real (not just nip) when he's lingering at the end of a meal. There's no trace of biting impulse when he's really hungry. And one time I tried to nurse him when he was upset and not hungry, just to quiet him down---that was a mistake I won't repeat!

I've never heard of the pulling in method. I might be too small-chested for it (pregancy brought me up to a small b cup!), but I'll give it a try.

Kaitlin'smom replied: just last saturday was my first bite, och did that hurt! She is getting the upper teeth in so I dont think the first time she meant to do it, but she did it yesterday after she was done, she was latching on and off and sunk them into me, I pulled her in and she let go, I told her that hurts mommy and we were done feeding. So far she has not done it again. (knock on wood). I will not let her linger anymore cause thats the two times I was bitten! and on the same side to....

coasterqueen replied: I have been getting bit since Kylie got her first tooth at 4 months, so for almost 9 months now. I first want to say I have never been bitten so badly that my nipple has had to be reattached or anything like that. I am thanking my lucky stars that so far that has not happened. I have heard that happening, though.

Kylie does bite pretty hard, never drew blood though, but left me in pain for awhile. I took me a few months to *figure* her out and once I did it's been pretty easy to deal with since. Now I look for other cues of teething like her chewing real hard on her toys, etc and when I see that and we go to nurse I just talk to her. I tell her "now don't bite mommy, please". The first few times I had to chant this throughout the entire nursing sessions. Then after a while I just had to do it at the beginning of a session. My hand was/is always right there ready to grab my breast out of her mouth. LOL. That first bite taught me to defend my boob! I might need it later, lol.

Kylie also likes to *chew* on my nipple at the end of a session, like scraping it thru her teeth just to drive me crazy. She'll do it then smile at me like she thinks she's in control, lol. So I have/now always say "Kylie, you open your mouth wide when you let go of mommy. That hurts mommy when you bite her, now open wide, I know you can". This is working well for us. Just simple talking to her seems to really get her attention and she works with me.

It really isn't that bad and the benefits of bf far outweighs the slight pain I feel from it when I do get caught off guard. Now, when she is teething I will give her things first before nursing to help her from not wanting to bite me either. Like frozen breastmilk cubes to gnaw on, her binkie, or something else.

She does bite me regularly, like my arm, shoulder, leg, toe, whatever she can dive into she will bite when she is teething. She broke skin on my arm and on my back. The little stinker! Now I have learned that when she starts to *dive* towards me that she is wanting to bite me and I tell her "No". I've just learned not to let my guard down around her chompers.

DansMom replied: I noticed that too: if he's teething actively I'll give him a cold teething ring from the fridge before nursing and let him gnaw on that for a while. That seems to help quiet down his chew impulse quite a bit. He is also biting my shoulder and arm and such right now---and I can see the edge of that tooth poking through.

paradisemommy replied: ITA with everyone..taven went through a spell of biting me but thank God - he never drew blood. nonetheless, i think he drew a couple tears..does that count?

seems like the times that he bit me was after he was done eating and he was just playing around..i tried the telling him no, pulling him off and not offering anymore but it didn't work. what finally worked for me was the pull in so he couldn't breath method. WORKS LIKE A CHARM. i did that a couple times and voila..no more biting..yahoo..

i do still get bit everywhere else though..shoulder (mostly when he is really excited) - he jumps and screams and buries his head in your shoulder and will take a pretty good chunk of skin in his mouth..hurts like a son of a gun and i have war wounds from it... he loves to bite fingers and toes and legs..pretty much anything close when he feels the urge. i'm still working on trying to figure out how to get him to stop that..but then again...we are working on #11 and #12 teeth that just broke the skin and he doesn't really show any other signs (crankiness, drooling, fussy, fever) so i usually just suck it up and take the bites..b/c i just keep thinking..my poor baby...