Help please, biting crisis

I'm so close to the end of my rope. DS is almost 15 months and is on
a biting rampage. My nipples are raw and sore, he's drawn blood and
they haven't had a chance to recover. He's teething, again and I know
that his biting gets worse when he is but jeez. I'm assuming he's
going to be teething off and on for the next year or so and I really
can't take much more of this. This current rampage has been going on
for over two weeks now.
I've tried ignoring it, making a huge deal about it (screaming,
yelling "no!", crying after a particularly bad session), putting him
away from me and ignoring him, I even tried pulling his hair. :-( I
won't do that again.
I now dread him asking to nurse as I don't know when he's going to
chomp. I no longer suggest it as I found pushing it when he wasn't
interested was a sure-fire way to get bit. But even when he climbs up
on my lap and dives for them, sometimes he'll bite me. I can't relax
while I'm nursing him and it used to be the best part of my day.
Is there anything else I can do? I really don't want to wean yet.
I'm looking for a local LLL meeting and am hoping I can get some
support/tips there. IRL, my family is supportive but without
experience in extended nursing.

TIA
~gwyn

"~gwyn" wrote in message
...
I'm so close to the end of my rope. DS is almost 15 months and is on
a biting rampage. My nipples are raw and sore, he's drawn blood and
they haven't had a chance to recover. He's teething, again and I know
that his biting gets worse when he is but jeez. I'm assuming he's
going to be teething off and on for the next year or so and I really
can't take much more of this. This current rampage has been going on
for over two weeks now.
I've tried ignoring it, making a huge deal about it (screaming,
yelling "no!", crying after a particularly bad session), putting him
away from me and ignoring him, I even tried pulling his hair. :-( I
won't do that again.
I now dread him asking to nurse as I don't know when he's going to
chomp. I no longer suggest it as I found pushing it when he wasn't
interested was a sure-fire way to get bit. But even when he climbs up
on my lap and dives for them, sometimes he'll bite me. I can't relax
while I'm nursing him and it used to be the best part of my day.
Is there anything else I can do? I really don't want to wean yet.
I'm looking for a local LLL meeting and am hoping I can get some
support/tips there. IRL, my family is supportive but without
experience in extended nursing.

TIA
~gwyn

Try giving him something cold before nursing. We found a wet washcloth kept
cold in a ziploc bag in the fridge helped with the biting. DD would suck on
it and as soon as she was finished, we'd commence nursing. She seemed to
get it out of her system that way.

theother Cheryl

Gwyn, I just went through that. One of the best suggestions I received from
this group was to keep an eye on my 8.5 mnth dd when he was bitting. First,
is he bitting near the beginning or the end of the feed? Second, if they
are latched properly they can't bite (we were soo comfy we had slipped into
a lazy latch. When aden goes for the end of my nipple I unlatch him now and
make him latch back on. He still nips, but its not as bad as it was. As
your has more teeth, I can only sympathize with how painful it must be!
Here's wishing you and your nipples the best
....pst isn't it funny how any where else you were to say that to a fellow
female you would be considered very rude and kinda crass lolol?

Michelle
Mom to Aden 01/08/03
"~gwyn" wrote in message
...
I'm so close to the end of my rope. DS is almost 15 months and is on
a biting rampage. My nipples are raw and sore, he's drawn blood and
they haven't had a chance to recover. He's teething, again and I know
that his biting gets worse when he is but jeez. I'm assuming he's
going to be teething off and on for the next year or so and I really
can't take much more of this. This current rampage has been going on
for over two weeks now.
I've tried ignoring it, making a huge deal about it (screaming,
yelling "no!", crying after a particularly bad session), putting him
away from me and ignoring him, I even tried pulling his hair. :-( I
won't do that again.
I now dread him asking to nurse as I don't know when he's going to
chomp. I no longer suggest it as I found pushing it when he wasn't
interested was a sure-fire way to get bit. But even when he climbs up
on my lap and dives for them, sometimes he'll bite me. I can't relax
while I'm nursing him and it used to be the best part of my day.
Is there anything else I can do? I really don't want to wean yet.
I'm looking for a local LLL meeting and am hoping I can get some
support/tips there. IRL, my family is supportive but without
experience in extended nursing.

TIA
~gwyn

The suggestion that often comes up here and seems to work, is when he bites,
pull him in close to you so that he can't breathe - he will have to let go!


HTH

Jo

--
Babies are Born... Pizzas are delivered.

JoFromOz wrote:

The suggestion that often comes up here and seems to work, is when he bites,
pull him in close to you so that he can't breathe - he will have to let go!

Works unless you're Mary S, Sticker Queen of the Unsmushable. :-))

Dawn

On Wed, 24 Sep 2003 20:58:32 -0400, "Cheryl M. \(ChatBrat\)"
wrote:

Try giving him something cold before nursing. We found a wet washcloth kept
cold in a ziploc bag in the fridge helped with the biting. DD would suck on
it and as soon as she was finished, we'd commence nursing. She seemed to
get it out of her system that way.

theother Cheryl

I'll give that a try, thanks. He sometimes likes to chew and suck on
washcloths so I'll probably skip the ziploc part.

~gwyn

On Wed, 24 Sep 2003 20:58:55 -0400, "shelby"
wrote:

Gwyn, I just went through that. One of the best suggestions I received from
this group was to keep an eye on my 8.5 mnth dd when he was bitting. First,
is he bitting near the beginning or the end of the feed? Second, if they
are latched properly they can't bite (we were soo comfy we had slipped into
a lazy latch. When aden goes for the end of my nipple I unlatch him now and
make him latch back on. He still nips, but its not as bad as it was. As
your has more teeth, I can only sympathize with how painful it must be!
Here's wishing you and your nipples the best
...pst isn't it funny how any where else you were to say that to a fellow
female you would be considered very rude and kinda crass lolol?

Michelle


:-) Yeah, I don't talk about my nipples *everywhere*, it just seems like it.

I've been trying to watch and anticipate when DS was going to bite but
he's tricky. He'll latch on, suck a few times and then *snap* and
he's off. It's the latching back on that usually gets me bit - even
if I'm not encouraging it. I guess it's better to end a feed or two
early than to go insane or wean early. Thanks Michelle.

~g

On Thu, 25 Sep 2003 11:56:12 +0800, "JoFromOz"
wrote:

The suggestion that often comes up here and seems to work, is when he bites,
pull him in close to you so that he can't breathe - he will have to let go!


HTH

Jo

Thanks Jo. DS usually bites as a parting gesture though so I don't
think I'll be able to grab and mush him before he's off.

~gwyn

"~gwyn" wrote in message
...
On Wed, 24 Sep 2003 20:58:32 -0400, "Cheryl M. \(ChatBrat\)"
wrote:

Try giving him something cold before nursing. We found a wet washcloth
kept
cold in a ziploc bag in the fridge helped with the biting. DD would suck
on
it and as soon as she was finished, we'd commence nursing. She seemed to
get it out of her system that way.

theother Cheryl

I'll give that a try, thanks. He sometimes likes to chew and suck on
washcloths so I'll probably skip the ziploc part.

~gwyn

Just to clarify - I store the washcloths in the fridge in ziploc baggies. I
take them out of the bag to give them to DD. The bags just help to ensure I
can keep a stock on hand during a rough teething period without odours etc.
transferring to the washcloths.

Best of luck,

theother Cheryl

Ya know what I found helped a bit was to show my DD what she *could* bite
right after she bit me. My DD went through a terrible biting stage at one
point and my husband (rightly, in my case) told me she was doing it for
attention. Amazingly, the second I stopped reacting in any way to it, she
stopped. That's easier said than done, but she went on a nursing strike for
a whole day because every time she went to breast she bit down and I would
say "no". She got confused, I guess and thought she wasn't allowed to
nurse, so she'd cry and cry. Anyway, I was determined to get her back (she
was only 8 months or so) and so I laid down with her between DH and I, and
latched her on. As soon as she was on, she bit me and I just didn't look at
her, squeexed Dh's husband hard (cos it was bl@@dy painful!) and squished
her a bit into the breast (doing it by itself hadn't worked - she just bit
harder) and amazingly she let go, relatched and didn't bite me again for
weeks. Every time she gets teeth she starts it again, but now that she's
older, she'll bite me (v gently now, I hasten to add) and then say "don't
bite!" So now, when she bites me I give her a teething ring, her
toothbrush, a piece of cloth, even whatever I happen to be wearing and tell
her "bite this" and she does. Seems to get it out of her system. It has
never completely gone away and many of the tricks that others tried did not
work for us (like putting her down and walking away - she just cried and
was inconsolable, and putting her back to breast 10,20, 30 minutes later she
still bit me - it was like she didn't make the connection).

Anyway, I do hope you find your solution...it's no fun (

CY
"~gwyn" wrote in message
...
On Wed, 24 Sep 2003 20:58:55 -0400, "shelby"
wrote:

Gwyn, I just went through that. One of the best suggestions I received
from
this group was to keep an eye on my 8.5 mnth dd when he was bitting.
First,
is he bitting near the beginning or the end of the feed? Second, if they
are latched properly they can't bite (we were soo comfy we had slipped
into
a lazy latch. When aden goes for the end of my nipple I unlatch him now
and
make him latch back on. He still nips, but its not as bad as it was. As
your has more teeth, I can only sympathize with how painful it must be!
Here's wishing you and your nipples the best
...pst isn't it funny how any where else you were to say that to a fellow
female you would be considered very rude and kinda crass lolol?

Michelle


:-) Yeah, I don't talk about my nipples *everywhere*, it just seems like
it.

I've been trying to watch and anticipate when DS was going to bite but
he's tricky. He'll latch on, suck a few times and then *snap* and
he's off. It's the latching back on that usually gets me bit - even
if I'm not encouraging it. I guess it's better to end a feed or two
early than to go insane or wean early. Thanks Michelle.

~g