At three and a half months old my child began to act a little out of the ordinary. The fussing seemed to increase two-fold, all he wanted to do was eat, and the drooling was uncontrollable. Finally, one day in the bathtub I noticed something. A little white spot on his bottom gum was starting to form. I took a breath in relief. “Now I understand why my child has been acting like a crazy person, he’s teething!”. I knew it was a little bit early, but low and behold about a week or so later two little razor sharp, eating machines popped through his red and tender gums. And so it began…
About a week into his fancy new chompers my son realized he could BITE! At first I had no idea what was happening. “Holy sh*t,” I screamed out loud “Get off!”. My little boy looked at me with his wide beautiful eyes, but was really just quite confused. I was amazed at how much it hurt and didn’t know what to do. “Do I put him back on? He hasn’t finished eating!” And so, like the newbie I am who is ever so concerned with her child’s weight, I allowed him to nurse again. The next 20 minutes were a combination of expletives and shouting. This was not going to work.
According to Kelly mom there are a variety of techniques that you can implement if your baby starts to bite you while nursing kellymom biting while nursing techniques . These suggestions range from offering teething toys, to saying nothing, to catching the deed before it occurs. In all of my wisdom and knowledge, I did none of these.
The biting continued until it got to the point where I would stare at him fearfully in anticipation of the oncoming bite that I knew was coming sooner or later. Sometimes I would pull him off before he got to me, but then I would feel guilty that he didn’t eat enough. One night, while my sister-in-law was visiting she heard me during one of the attacks. I came out of his room angry and exasperated as usual and she suggested that perhaps I stop shouting at him “He may just be looking for your reaction since you give him such a big reaction”. The thought had never occurred to me that my poor innocent son was not actually trying to remove chunks from my bosom, but maybe just maybe he was doing it for other reasons.
I finally consulted the experts. After reviewing kellymom, I moved to la leche league, lll biting while nursing techniques. I began to use the silent treatment when he would attack, calmly remove him and then proceed to tell him in a kind soft voice that “You do not bite mommy. Mommy is not for biting!” Afterwards, I would show him a teething toy that he could use for biting, should the urge strike him.
We have been using the above strategy for about a month and a half now and our success comes in waves. Sometimes he will go days, and maybe a whole week without biting, while other times he goes on attack mode all day long. Either way it has gotten better. My only complaint now is his new technique. My sweet, sweet boy, has recently begun to bite and then suddenly get a case of lockjaw. It has become increasingly difficult to refrain from yelling when this occurs, but I have been able to maintain composure. I know I can stick my finger in his mouth to break the latch, but am truly so pain stricken that all I can do is take deep breaths to prevent myself from screaming. The worst part is that he catches me off guard, not biting for several days and then saving all of his energy for the perfect moment.
I am resilient and will endure through this latest venture, but would love to not worry about the possibility of being maimed. Not sure how to stop the sudden lock-jaw attacks and always eager to try new things.
Feel free to comment on successful techniques.
theunperfectmom.com 