Ok Mumma's, prepare yourselves. We’re talking about…. biting! We know it makes you squirm, cringe, recoil and want to hide under the bed, but it’s important to understand why your little one is biting and how you can prevent it from happening at every feed. Yes, that’s right, there are some very simple changes you can make that will hamper bubs efforts to bite you whilst on the breast. New mum Annie began offering the Minbie to her baby River and found it improved his latch enormously, and put an end to the biting too!
The key to avoiding biting
The key to avoiding the dreaded bite, is to ensure your little one is latched correctly. When a baby is latched in the correct position their tongue naturally covers the lower gum (& teeth if they're through) so bub is unable to bite your breast without biting themselves in the process. Once bub is latched effectively, your nipple will be deep in their mouth, protected from the toe curling bite.
When your little one starts cutting teeth the pain of biting becomes even more unbearable, hence it’s easy to understand why so many mothers give up trying to breastfeed altogether. However, help is at hand! The Minbie bottle feeding system can help you ‘tidy up’ bubs latch which will allow you to continue to breastfeed (teeth and all) for a good deal longer without the risk of a nibble every now and again.
Reasons your baby may be biting and how to overcome them
🤱🏻Frustration: Bub may be finding the flow of your milk too slow and is biting because they are frustrated. Equally your flow may be too fast and bub’s finding it hard to keep up. If you think your little one is becoming frustrated due to a fast flow you can try using the Minbie breast pump to express some milk beforehand to make it easier for bub to latch and control the pace. If you think your flow is too slow, try offering a bottle of expressed breastmilk to see if that helps ease the frustration. (Our pump can help you increase your milk supply too, so it’s a handy tool to have in your repertoire.)
🤱🏻Attention seeking & playing: Some older babies may bite to get a reaction out of you. Seeing you flailing around is a little bit of excitement for them. They don’t understand that their new teeth are like mini daggers, so it’s important you gently show bub that it hurts and don’t hop up and down screaming and shouting. (Some little ones have been known to refuse the breast altogether after being given a fright by mum's reaction to a bite.) Play it cool despite the excruciating pain you’ve just experienced, distract them, loosen their grip and gently tell them it hurts, before re latching.
Biting doesn't have to mean the end of your breastfeeding journey. Using the Minbie bottle feeding system will help you and your little one remove biting from your routine so that you can continue to breastfeed unharmed. The Minbie teat will allow you to breast and bottle feed as it nurtures bub's latch, ensuring more effective feeding, and ultimately helping to overcome that lazy 'bitey' latch we all want to avoid.