He bit me hard at 7 months, I yelped, and now he does it to make me yelp again

Two bottom teeth arrived last month and we were fine. Then on Thursday he clamped down at the end of a feed and I made a noise I did not know I could make. He pulled off, looked at me, and LAUGHED.

Since then he has done it at five feeds. Every time it is at the end. Every time he waits, looks up at me first, and then bites, and every time I react because I cannot not react, it genuinely hurts. My left nipple has a graze on it now and I flinch before he even latches.

My sister says this is what happens when you feed past six months and I should take it as a sign. I do not want to stop at seven months over this. Is there an actual technique or do I just accept a year of this?

Your sister is wrong, ignore that entirely. Both of mine went through a biting fortnight and both stopped, and I fed one to a year and one to fourteen months with a full set of teeth doing no damage whatsoever.

The bit that changed it for me was realising the reaction is the entertainment. So I made myself boring. Finger in the corner of the mouth to unlatch, flat voice saying "no biting", put him on the playmat, walk to the kitchen for thirty seconds, come back and offer again. Not cross, not dramatic, just deeply dull. Took maybe four days with my first and two with my second because I was quicker off the mark.

The other half is timing. They cannot bite while they're actually drinking. It's when the swallowing stops and they start mucking about that it happens.

Watching for the end of the swallowing is the whole trick, agreed. I started taking mine off the second the gulping stopped rather than letting her hang on for a lazy ten minutes, and that ended it because I removed the opportunity.

The flinching is real though and it takes longer to go than the biting does.

Priya, this took me completely by surprise with my eldest at around seven months too, and I handled it badly for about four days: I shrieked, she found it hilarious, and we were locked in a game I had accidentally invented. So I have a lot of sympathy and no moral high ground here.

What eventually worked was exactly what Gemma describes, and the reason it works is worth knowing. A baby cannot bite while they are actively feeding, because the tongue covers the lower gum and the nipple is drawn well back in the mouth. So bites happen in the gaps: right at the start before the latch is deep, and at the end when the milk slows and they get bored and inventive. Yours is a textbook end-of-feed biter, hence the little look up at you first. That look is your cue to get him off.

Practical bits that helped me. Unlatch by sliding a clean finger into the corner of his mouth to break the seal rather than pulling away against a clamped jaw, because pulling away is what turns a nip into a proper graze. Keep one identical dull response every time. And take the edge off the gums before a feed if he is teething, a cold flannel or a chilled teething ring gives the urge somewhere else to go. There is more on all of it in biting and teething while breastfeeding.

For the graze, feed the sore side second so the fiercest sucking lands on the good side first, and keep an eye on it. Broken skin that is not healing, or any spreading redness or fever, needs seeing rather than soldiering through, and sore and cracked nipples covers the care.

Just to add one thing nobody told me: mine bit most on the days the tooth was actually coming through and then went weeks without doing it at all. So if it stops and then restarts in a month, it is not that your method failed, it is a new tooth.

Week later. Boring response, off at the end of the swallowing, cold flannel before the evening feed. He tried twice more on the Tuesday, got absolutely nothing out of me, and has not done it since Thursday. The graze has healed.

The flinch is still there if I'm honest but it's fading. Sister has been informed that we are continuing.