Meatball has become quite the nursing ninja. She twists, turns and contorts her little chunky body in all directions in an effort to find a comfortable nursing position. Did I mention she’s latched on while she does all of this? The first couple of months this was ok because she didn’t have teeth, but now it’s a different story. At 8 months of age she has 6 teeth (in different stages of growing in) and while I don’t feel the razor sharp teeth (seriously…babies have some sharp pointy teeth) most of the time, I do when she goes all cirque du soleil on the boob.
OUCH!!!! And that’s just moving, when she decides she wants to bite it’s unbelievable painful!
So what do I do to curb her biting my nips? Well…sometimes I just bear it (and trust me…by now I think you can attach clamps to my nips and I wouldn’t feel a thing but I’ll explain why I grin and bear a few paragraphs down) but most times I remove her from the breast, say “don’t bite Mami”, set her down for 5 minutes and then bring her back to the boob.
Does this approach work? For me, yes. Most of the time. I use this method because in my opinion, if you react in big, negative way the baby will probably associate nursing with the negative reaction and wean before they normally would have. I’m not trying to scare meatball away from the boob, in fact quite the opposite…I want her to breastfeed as long as possible (yes…I’m that Mami).
So why do I grin and bear it sometimes, well meatball sometimes doesn’t take the bottle because she knows the difference between the plastic nipple a a real nipple. So she holds out all day until I get home from work…as soon as she sees me she frantically tugs at my shirt and wants to latch on. So when she’s in desperation mode and anxious about getting her food supply she sometimes bites and I see stars. Sigh. I’m happy to report that this doesn’t happen as often anymore and my nipples seem to be ok! There is some Mami stuff that you just gotta deal with and this is one of them. I mean, I spent a total of 30 hours in labor and pushed for 3 hours to get this kid out…a bite on the boob I can handle.
Any mamis out there have any suggestions or advice on biting while BF’ing? Leave a comment! I want to hear your ideas.
Have a happy afternoon mamis!
What a little gymnast you have there!! Do you find that she moves around/bites more when she is in a more upright position? I find that my little one (16 months) is sometimes calmer when I lie down to nurse him. It might be worth trying when you get home and she is frantic to nurse.
I have had the unfortunate experience of getting bitten hard and there being an actual cut. I found a way to naturally heal it without meds, though! Other mamas commented on my post about it with their experiences and what they’ve used as well. I hope you never need it, but just in case: http://atlantamomofthree.wordpress.com/2012/09/16/healing-from-babys-bite/
I will definitely look at your post, and yes I do side lying nursing, but mostly at night. She gets really frantic when I get home from work so she wants the booby right away. She’s getting much better with the biting though!
Have you tried pinching her nose???? I used to do that to Chris…not Maddy yet.
Gaby…you’re a freakin genius!! I’m trying that next time meatball decides to use her chompers!!!