(teapot) wrote in message . com...
well the Moo has 2 little white teeth poking through his bottom gum,
they are not all out yet but its imminent!

I thought it would be wise to ask for tips in case he turns out to be
a biter. He's been doing this pull off thing for the last week or so
and he gets 3 chances to settle before the boob gets put away as it
hurts. Should I use the same strategy for biting? I'm not sure its
working for the pulling off. What I mean by pulling off is when they
have a firm grip on th nipple but wrench their heads away fast - ouch.

Well, Kivi went through a few biting phases, though none lasted long.

The only BAD biting phase we had was when she was 11 months old, and
had an ear infection, and she would bite me if I even *offered* her
the breast. That was the worst, because she didn't have to put her
mouth on me, so it's like she went out of her way to bite.

I did a couple of things:
1. Gently smushed her in close to my breast so she couldn't breathe.
She pulled away in no time.
2. poked or tapped her cheek - just hard enough to get the point
across, not enough to hurt.
3. Put her down and walked away.

To my eternal shame, though, after she'd given me the 4th or 5th hard
bite in one day, I lost my temper and hit her cheek. Not hard enough
to injure (or even leave a read mark) but it upset her horribly. She
didn't bite me again, and turned her face away when I offered and she
didn't want to nurse.

After that biting episodes have been very isolated and never serious.
For awhile, when she was 14-15 months she would latch on
overenthusiastically, and I would merely remind her to be gentle. Now
at, two, she very occasionally bites the very tip of my nipple, not
hard, (almost carefully), as if she is curious what I'll do, but
doesn't wan't to hurt me. I usually yelp and say "no biting!" and she
doesn't do it again for a month or so.

Cathy Weeks
Mommy to Kivi Alexis 12/01