Stopping Baby Bites

• Constant biting may cause breast infection, so allow your nipples to heal.
• Let your nipples open for sometime after feeding so that they can dry in air.
• Breast milk has wonderful natural healing properties of breast milk, so massaging a few drops of your onto your nipples several times a day can help.
• Apply a pure lanolin ointment on your nipples frequently.
• To make your baby stop biting, yell as if in pain and suddenly push his mouth away from the nipple, as soon as the child bites, so that the child can know from your reaction that biting hurts and not to do it again. Some babies are too sensitive and may get so shocked from yanking that they may not nurse or breastfeed for a while but even, they need to learn the nursing manners.
• A breastfeeding journal can help you in figuring out what makes your child bite you, for example, hunger or sleep.
• Some babies bite if they are too hungry, out of eagerness to satiate their hunger. In such cases, feed them more often.
• As the child starts clamping his or her teeth on your nipples, craw him so close to your heart that the child’s nose gets covered. It will force the infant to open his mouth and breathe and stop biting.
• You may also insert a finger in baby’s mouth and do not allow him or her to clamp the teeth by prying the jaws apart.
• You may push baby’s lower jaw using your index finger for babies who have tight mouths and chomp on breasts.
• If the child persistently bites, stop nursing him or her as soon as soon as he or she starts biting for sometime.
• Many children bite at the end of feeding, as ‘comfort sucking’. So, near the end, you may give frozen teething rings, bananas, and cold washcloths to your baby as teethers.
• You may also need to use a nipple shield for a few days until your child stops biting.