So, Jonathan and I are facing our first disciplinary issue with Eli: biting. Ok, it's not a real disciplinary issue because he is only 7 months old, but we are trying to make sure we don't encourage the behavior and teach him what is appropriate to bite. Like, Sophie the Giraffe. Not our shoulders.
Eli use to bite me (while nursing) before he had teeth, and while it wasn't the sharp pain that it is now, it still hurt. I found that the best way to stop him was to unlatch him with my finger every time. After two or three days he stopped and hasn't done it again until now. Which by the way, I know he is doing it because his teeth are bothering him. Poor baby. Anyway, in all of my blog reading and researching, I've found that a lot of moms can break the biting habit by pushing the babe's head gently toward them, which causes them to release. So, I tried that, and Eli just bit harder. I went back to my unlatch method and it worked again, thank goodness!
So that took care of the biting while nursing bit... but he was still biting both of us while we held him, or while he crawled over our legs, or when we thought we were getting kisses on the cheek... you get the picture. So, we decided to try to be consistent with setting him down, getting on his level, and giving him a firm "No biting." Then, we pick him back up and grab a chew toy. This is only the second day of doing this, but it seems to be working. I'll keep you updated!
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