Nursing through teething!!!

Look up the La Leche League either in the phonebook or on line, they should have someone who could help. Certainly don't listen to the moms that may tell you that you should stop, or it's a sign you should stop. Mine bite me, but I don't remember it bleeding, but it's been 7 years since. I breast feed both of my girls until age 3 and yes, it was mostly pacifyig themselfes after age 2, but i did still have milk and i treasure the moments that only i could have with my kids.

" just my Opinion"

Sorry, I can't help, I quit after the first bite, or rather I didn't quit, but I went to pumping exclusively .... I would contact Le Leche, but I think really only nature running it's course is going to be the key .. unless you can just self express until it heals enough to continue pumping with out reopening the wound. Good luck!!

Here's my experience. My daughter is now six. In retrospect, I was a little hard on myself as a new mom. For example, I thought for sure I would breast feed for an entire year. At four months my daughter lost interest and I forced it for an entire month. I was shooting for six months at this point.

At this time I was also in a moms group and I witnessed a lot of moms struggle immensly with breast feeling. I really had it easy compared to them because my daughter latched well and for the time she did feed - it went as smooth as breastfeeding can.

At five months I realized I was forcing it to fulfill my need to feel like a good mom. The literature shows that one year is ideal, but breast milk for any duration helps a child in a statistically significant way (La Lece may disagree).

Once we introduced jarred food, she really wasn't interested in breast milk. So I finally stopped the madness at five months even though it meant giving up MY six month goal.

Hi,
Have you tried one of the "glue" products for cuts? Band Aid makes one that should "glue" it together and hopefully would hold it closed even through pumping. It might be worth a try. It's like dermabond that they use in the emergency room to glue cuts together with. The Band Aid one has a little q-tip thing that you put some drops of activator on, and then you just swab the area, you can do more than one application. It is supposed to stay glued shut until the skin heals.
My son had the top and bottom teeth and would clamp down and then "peel" off of of my nipple with his teeth clenched. That was not so fun too. I would end up pumping for that feeding and giving it to him in a bottle. One of the books had said to say no to him when he bit, but then that just made him not want to breast feed at all and I ended up with a total nursing strike on my hands. Even though I didn't even say no every strictly ... my son was really sensitive as a baby. I had a really hard time getting him to breast feed again. Anyway, biting just sucks! I hope your daughter stops!

I don't know what hospital is in your area, but most of them have lactation consultants on staff that you can call. There are also several nusing stores around that have consultants that give free advice.

I had similar issues with wounds - it's no fun but if you can put up with the pain nurse just a little bit each day and don't worry about the baby taking in the blood (or at least I didn't and neither of my kids had problems with it). You may have to supplement with formula if it just won't heal - I ended up doing that for my own comfort and sanity and it was the best decision ever to let myself off the hook a little bit. My 6-year-old and 2-year-old are happy and healthy today.

Susie is a discussion leader in the east valley for arizonamoms.com. She has two sons, ages 6 and 2.

My kids are 7 and 10 now, but they both breastfed for a year and both bit me! I also worked when the 10 year old was a baby, so I was pumping quite often. I continued nursing him on the "unwounded" side and pumped from the "wounded" side, but I dumped the "strawberry milk" (it was pink from the blood). It still healed. Just put a little neosporin on it when you are done pumping and try to keep it exposed to air whenever you can.

I did tell them "no!" sharply when they bit, and it seemed to work, as it only happened a couple of times with both of them (at least hard enough to draw blood).

The Baby Whisperer (a book) has a bunch of advice on breastfeeding. I'd check out what she has to say. As far worrying about drying out, the human body is truly amazing. Women can quit breastfeeding and then start back again. If nothing else, stop feeding on the one side and then go back after the cut heals. If you put neosporin on it or something similar and try to give it as much air as possible (no comment as to how to do that....), it should only take a few days to heal to the point where you can feed again. Hope this helps!

Also, to prevent future bites, a friend told me that when her baby bit her, she pulled him into her chest and he let go. Macy wasn't so accommodating...I had to gently plug her nose. Sounds mean, but works like a charm. And she quickly learned not to bite me. She now has teeth on top and bottom and I haven't been bitten since her first two.