boo has her two bottom front (sharp) teeth and during week 29 i received my first bite. there is a common misconception that once a baby has teeth, breastfeeding is uncomfortable or even impossible. in reality, if your baby is nursing properly, then you should not feel her teeth. It's physically impossible for baby to nurse and bite at the same time, because her tongue covers the bottom teeth when baby is nursing. boo had just finished eating when she bit me.
kellymom has a great page on "When Baby Bites" which includes suggestions on what to do if and when biting becomes an issue.
when boo bit me i was more startled then physically hurt. two small teeth biting down on my nipple is not a pleasant sensation, especially during a late night feeding when i'm only half-awake! i involuntarily reacted by using my finger to break boo's latch and firmly(without yelling) said "no". this reaction was pure instinct and luckily, effective. the Nursing Mothers Companion warns that a strong negative reaction to biting, such as yelling out, could lead to a nursing strike or worse, baby might find your yelling funny and may continue to bite for the reaction.
since my first experience of being boo's new teething toy, i've been bit an additional 3 or 4 times. on each occasion i broke the latch, firmly said no and ended the nursing session temporarily.
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I can't remember if I read this in the Nursing MOther Companion or not, but what I have always done which has worked well and stopped the biting all together is when baby bites, gently push their face towards you. It makes it so they can't breath through their nose and they automatically stop biting and open their mouth. I did this with my first two and now with my third and for me it's worked every time with no adverse affects. Infact with my first I tried breaking the latch and giving a firm "no" and he would just look at me confused and continue to bit. Once I switched to pulling him in, he seemed to quickly start associating biting with not breathing and the biting pretty much stopped. Good luck!!
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