See those adorable little teeth poking out of that sweet little mouth? Yeah, those little things are the source of a lot of pain, frustration, and worry. His first two teeth (bottom front teeth) came in fairly easily. He was cranky a few evenings and he drooled like crazy. But, then they came up and the cranky was gone! Currently, though, he has eight teeth coming in all at once.
The past few days have had a lot of screaming. But, that hasn’t been the worst part.
When he got his first two teeth he bit me while nursing. I jumped three feet and he didn’t bite again. But, now that he is getting even more teeth he has been biting every time I breastfeed him. Jumping hasn’t helped. Stopping the feeding hasn’t helped. If this continues weaning may have to happen…something I didn’t want to do until he was at least a year old.
I’ve googled quite a bit about biting while breastfeeding and have found a lot of sources with ideas on why it is happening and how to prevent it. Some of these sources have only succeeded in making me feel like a bad mom.
I typically love Kellymom.com for breastfeeding advice. But, this quote made me so frustrated:
“If your baby is nursing properly, then you should not feel teeth, even if baby has a mouthful of them. And keep in mind that it’s physically impossible for baby to nurse and bite at the same time, because the tongue covers the bottom teeth/gum when baby is nursing.”
So, my child who has been nursing successfully for the past 8 months all the sudden is not nursing properly? And, yes, the tongue covers the bottom teeth/gum, but his top teeth are the ones that are getting me currently.
The posts also says that most moms only experience this problem “for a couple of weeks.” I’m sorry if this makes me a terrible mom… but, being bit on my nipple every feeding for a couple of weeks doesn’t sound like something I can go through.
I have found some good advice and will try to make it work for a little longer. But, teething bites in my opinion!
