Ouch! She's biting the nipple and it is killing me; I'm ready to throw in the towel. Why is my baby biting me while breastfeeding?
Many moms call to ask this very question. The baby may be two days, two weeks or 12 months. It doesn't matter how old the baby is, biting the nipple isn't fun; it's awful!
In the early days and weeks, the bite reflex causes a baby to bite when the baby is positioned on the nipple and not deep on the breast. Since healthcare professionals started "teaching" mothers how to breastfeed and companies started pushing breastfeeding pillows, there appears to be an increase in nipple pain. One study showed that latching problems started when we standarized how breastfeeding works*. What? How could that be? Perhaps and probably because we began interfering with a mother's instincts to breastfeed her baby. Having someone help you understand how mothers and newborn babies feed best through Biological Nurturing™ can make the difference between pain and no pain, as well as weight gain and no weight gain (for many babies). Micromanaging the latch is not the best way and oftentimes makes things worse.
When babies get older, they sometimes start to bite when teething. Older babies bite as a tease sometimes, first not realizing that biting equals PAIN. This is when a firm "NO" can work. If this doesn't work for your baby in an few tries, there may be a hidden issue going on. In that case, have your baby evaluated by an IBCLC that specilaizes in these issues.
*Presented by Suzanne Colson, PhD, MSc, BA, RM, RGN in her talk "Is Breastfeeding a Learned Skill?" Baystate Breastfeeding Conference May 5-6, 2011