Biting whilst breastfeeding

[Sarah_37]

Hello!

Does anyone have any tips to stop this? My 8 month old has 2 teeth and I think more on the way but has started biting me when feeding. It is sooooo painful! I’m starting to wean him onto a bottle in the day but still wanted to breast feed him at night. He still wakes up a lot at night despite the weaning. At the moment I just stop feeding him when he bites but wondered if anyone has any other tips?

Many thanks

[Seb9]

Sometimes they bite because it relieves the pain of teething so putting some pain killer on their gums before feeding can help. I use anbesol liquid and that seems to help.

I pop her down if she bites and wait a few minutes before offering again and say no biting. I used to do the same if she pulled off without letting go restricted access! It seems to have worked most of the time 🤞

[Sarah_37 in reply to Seb9]

Thank you I’ll give it a go x

[Bakingcupcake in reply to Sarah_37]

i second that and anbesol is great for teething...it is painful when they bite though 🙈 x dont let it put you off breastfeeding though as my LO didn't bite all the time, i bf for over 15 months she had lots of teeth by then too and she only bit on the odd occasion really xx

[Sarah_37 in reply to Bakingcupcake]

Thank you x

[dairyfan]

Hi Sarah_37,

I’m sorry I’m not really replying with a solution but I do remember my daughter doing this at the same age as your baby and thinking this must be why a lot of people stop breastfeeding around this age. My daughter didn’t get teeth till much later so I was fortunate to not have that level of biting but it was a kind of biting without teeth. It seemed to be a phase...maybe they develop a new level of awareness of the nursing site at around that age??!! I hope to reassure you by letting you know she grew out of it soon, so hopefully your son will too. I didn’t react strongly to it - though it also hurt me - when she did it as I didn’t want her to develop any negative associations with feeding. I’m afraid I don’t remember what I did very well now but I think I may have taken her off and let her try again, over and over again.

I hope you find a way forward!

Best wishes

[Sarah_37 in reply to dairyfan]

Thank you, that’s reassuring 😊 hope it’s a phase he grows out of x