Tips for weaning an attached 11 month old - Infant Care (up to 18 months old) Message Board

BigMomma24 · 01-28-2006, 12:01 AM

Hello.. my dd will be 1 year old next week and I am having trouble nursing her now. She has 8 teeth and when she nurses, she grinds them on my nipple and have left them sore and achey, with little open cuts that burn. I want to try weening her because she can't learn to stop biting down and grinding on my breasts and it's excruciating! The thing is: she is so attached to me and the breast that it seems that's the only way she will calmly go to sleep. When she takes naps during the day, I have to lay down and breastfeed her so she can relax and drift off into sleep. I've tried denying her the breast, but she will rant and scream until I give in. Tonight, my sore nipples were in so much pain that I had my boyfriend put her to sleep for me so I wouldn't be "guilt-tripped" into nursing, but when he's not here, I don't know what to do. Any advice on how to wean a baby that is very attached to the breast??? The pain is killing me!

dizzygirl · 01-28-2006, 05:44 AM

I know that the Dr. Sears books, aspecially the Breastfeeding Book, has good tips. I know how you feel, I live the same situation every day. Ds has 5 teeth, and I'm in some pain right now too.

shelliam · 01-28-2006, 08:26 AM

Bigmomma- I am proud of you for making it this long. DD is 7 1/2 months and anly has 2 teeth she will bite down and pull back OUCH! I weaned DS at 6 months for this reason and am trying to pull through this with DD. At this age we gave DS bottles as we do for DD. You could try to give her sippy cups or bottles with your BM. I gave DS my EBM for 1-2 months afterwards then switched to all formula.at that age you could go to milk. I would have DH feed her this helped us too until he forgot. Good luck.

rouge · 01-30-2006, 08:17 AM

Wean out the non-sleep time feeding first. I did one at a time over a year or so, but you could do it at your own pace. First I figured out/made our schedule. Once I knew the times we were feeding I picked a time to take out. When he wanted to nurse at that time I put him in his high chair and gave him some food/milk instead. I would distract with the TV or a book if he fussed. Everyday after that I would not nurse at that time. I just continued with this.

For the sleep nurse times that is much harder. You have to find a new way to put them to sleep. I rocked my son instead. He cried about it but eventually he would go down. We had days where he would cry for over and hour while I was rocking him. Very tough times. Now he is a great sleeper.

My son did go through periods of time where his teeth were very hurtful. He got them early, so this started early. Try pushing their face closer to the breast. And make sure they open wide when latching on. They get lazy and their mouth is not fully open. This caused the teeth to rest on you and with the movement can be very painful. Not to mention the little cuts you get. My son did grow out of it though. We nursed until he wanted to quit at 22 months. If he had bit me when younger I would say no biting in a firm voice and take him off the breast and set him on the floor in front of me. He would stop after a couple of times of that. Only testing me once or twice when older.