When your baby first latches on to your breast, the milk usually flows quite quickly. Unfortunately for you, this includes using his mouth and teeth to find out about the taste and texture of objects, including your breast and if you yelp or jump, your baby will probably want to know whether you will react in the same interesting way if he does the same thing again. Life is just one big experiment, and this is how babies and children learn about the world they live in. Baby is experimenting with cause and effectĪs soon has your baby is able to control her arms and legs, you will notice her trying to reach for objects and interact with the world an older child will spend what seems like hours building a tower and knocking it down, or banging two objects together to hear the sound they make.He may decide to turn and look at whatever has caught his attention, but may keep tight hold of your nipple while he does so. For the first few months, a baby at the breast seems oblivious to everything else, but as he gets older he starts to take an interest in what’s going on around him as he feeds. You may be feeding your baby in a noisy environment, possibly with an older sibling doing something interesting in the background. A tiny baby doesn’t seem to notice much if your attention is elsewhere (though she enjoys it a lot when you look at her and talk to her), but a baby of a few months or older may discover that a quick bite is a very effective way of getting your attention away from your phone or book: suddenly you’re looking at her and talking to her, even if you do have an angry expression on your face! When you have a young baby, breastfeeding can be a rare opportunity to turn your attention to something else, like texting a friend, reading a book or shopping on the internet. In her attempts to latch on, or in frustration at not being able to latch, she may bite down. When your baby has a stuffy nose, it can be really hard for her to get an effective latch on the breast and breathe comfortably while feeding. Most mothers notice that biting is most likely while the tooth is on its way through, rather than after it has erupted through the gum, though a brand new tooth can be very sharp so may leave a scratch even if your baby doesn’t clamp down with it.
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Sometimes a baby who is cutting a new tooth will bite on anything he can get hold of to ease the pain in his jaws and gums, and unfortunately that includes his mother’s breast or nipple. It’s hard to know exactly why a baby bites for the first time, as she can’t tell us what’s going on, but there are a number of situations where mothers often notice biting. However, the pain of being bitten, or the fear of being bitten again, can really get in the way of a comfortable breastfeeding relationship with your baby, so it’s important to find some ways of dealing with the biting so that you and your baby can continue to feed in comfort.
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The World Health Organisation recommends two years or more of breastfeeding, so there’s no hurry to stop just because your baby has teeth we do call them ‘milk teeth’, after all! (See for more information) Some mothers have even been advised by other people that “you’ll have to stop breastfeeding now he’s got teeth”, which is absolutely not the case. He isn’t trying to hurt you – he isn’t yet able to understand that he is causing you pain. Some will breastfeed for months or years without even a tiny nip, some may do it once or twice, while some babies are more persistent biters. It’s not unusual for a baby to test out his new teeth on his mother.