Nursing Moms: how do you deal with biting?

My poor nipples!

I'm currently breastfeeding my almost 10-month-old son who has six teeth. Just this week he's started chewing on my nipples and I'm not sure what to do about it.

He's been doing a lot more self-feeding recently with chunky pieces of food so I'm thinking he may be getting confused when nursing which leads to the biting.

On the other hand, I can tell when he's getting ready to bite. He'll stop actively nursing for a moment (like he's thinking about it) and then moves his jaw from side to side before the bite. After he bites, he looks up at me as if he wants to see what my reaction will be. Occasionally, he'll bite hard enough to make my eyes water.

I've tried ending the nursing session after he bites while telling him "No biting!" but it doesn't seem to work. He just grins at me. I've said "ouch!" rather loudly when he bites and I get the same little grin.

He is teething right now but he's not bitten in the past. Any suggestions on things that have worked for you?

Dr. Sears has some great suggestions for this in this article,http://www.askdrsears.com/html/2/T029900.asp if you get the sign up for newsletter prompt just click on go straight to the story.  My favorite of his suggestions is:

Pull baby close. Instead of the yank-and-yell response, which you may intuitively feel like doing, as soon as you sense baby's teeth coming down to bite, draw her in close to your breast and she will automatically let go in order to open her mouth more and uncover her nose to breathe. Don't try to disengage your nipple from the clenched teeth. Your baby will lessen her bite as she realized that she can't both bite and breathe. After several times of this counter-instinctive trick of pulling your baby in close to you when she bites, your baby will realize that biting triggers this uncomfortable response and she will stop biting. Remember, your goal is to discourage her from biting, not to frighten her.

Oh, that made me laugh, hotharmony!  I don't think I've ever heard "smother your child to teach them" before!  Not that it isn't good advice - just struck me funny.

With my daughter, I would stop nursing while saying "no biting", and put her down and leave the room, because like your son, she would smile this evil little smile if I didn't react extravagantly.  It seemed to work after a couple of times, or maybe she just outgrew that phase - she got her teeth at about 5 months.  Of course, it would appear again upon occasion, but she really didn't like being put down and left. (She was always in a safe place when I left, and I didn't go far)

Thanks, ladies!

hotharmony, that certainly is interesting but I've found that those Sears boys usually know what they're talking about.

puh8, that devilish little smile! So cute but so irritating!

He only bit once last night and it was at the end of his bedtime nursing session. He must be getting bored since it's usually toward the end. I stopped nursing, told him no and put him to bed. He didn't seem to mind the end of the nursing. Hopefully he's getting over it.

Original Post by hotharmony:

Dr. Sears has some great suggestions for this in this article,http://www.askdrsears.com/html/2/T029900.asp if you get the sign up for newsletter prompt just click on go straight to the story.  My favorite of his suggestions is:

Pull baby close. Instead of the yank-and-yell response, which you may intuitively feel like doing, as soon as you sense baby's teeth coming down to bite, draw her in close to your breast and she will automatically let go in order to open her mouth more and uncover her nose to breathe. Don't try to disengage your nipple from the clenched teeth. Your baby will lessen her bite as she realized that she can't both bite and breathe. After several times of this counter-instinctive trick of pulling your baby in close to you when she bites, your baby will realize that biting triggers this uncomfortable response and she will stop biting. Remember, your goal is to discourage her from biting, not to frighten her.

This method works very quickly. I did this and  After a few attempted bites and doing this they never bit again!!!

Well, we've made it 24 hours without a biting episode but I think it's because he's not falling asleep at the breast. I mean, every feeding he's out like a light after 5 minutes or so. I've tried everything to keeping him awake and (like his father) he can sleep through anything!

I've also noticed that he's biting the spoon toward the end of his solid food feedings. I'm going to say that the biting (spoons and nipples) is a cue that he's full. Hopefully he's over the biting while nursing now!