Deal with teething while breastfeeding

My baby is almost 6 months and already teething while I m still breastfeeding: it happens especially in the evening meals, when she is more tired and nervous, that she bites my nipples and it s very painful. How to cope with this?I m sore and thinking of stopping breastfeeding.Pls advise!

There is a lot of information on this. Babies can learn to feed while teething, and with teeth, without biting you.


The general advice is to firmly say NO and use your finger to get her to 'unlatch'. So have your finger ready. And she will learn not to in a short time.


The good news is, they do learn and it is possible.


When they feed, their tongue actually covers their lower jaw which helps a lot.


The worst for me was when my baby would suddenly turn his head and forget to let go - ouch!


Now at 9 months he hasn't done this in a long time.


For mor advise, you could seek out a midwife from Annerley for a home visit, go to a LLL meeting or contact LLL, or go to Matilda Well Baby Clinic.


Good luck! And congratulations for lasting 6 months - wooo-hooo!!!! :)

this too will pass. I breastfed my older one until she was 1 and she had a full set of chompers. Pay attention while feeding - as CRJ suggest - at the first sign that she is getting ready to clamp down - say NO! and unhook her. Mine did this, and after two days of saying "NO" she was done. Babies are smart - they'd rather eat than be scolded.

You've gotten great advice. I'll just add that we went through the same thing, and she learned very quickly not to bite me. We went on to BF until she was 20 months with no biting issues at all after that first day or so, they do learn very quickly. It is important, as Ruth said, not to scare your baby with the "no's".


In retrospect, I wish I'd realised that her earlier gumming me was going to get more painful once her teeth came in. If I'd been thinking ahead, I'd have addressed it at the gumming stage.