Why does my baby attack my breast?

 There are many folks among moms for the question why does my baby attack my breast? Most babies attacking their mom’s breasts with specific body movements at the nursing time. They start these movements by kicking mom’s boobs with their legs. Most babies are quite active while nursing. When the mom’s supply is not good the babies show these behavior patterns.

I can not point out the unique reason for your little one’s breast attacking while feeding.  But it is mostly associated with the sucking skill of your baby.  It takes little time to master sucking skills for the babies.  They struggle a little at the beginning to get the maximum satisfaction through sucking breast milk. Some babies are unable to fulfill their sensory needs, especially with oral sensory stimulations. So they struggle a lot when they meet oral stimulation while sucking milk. So these uncoordinated sensory experiences may also cause these violent attacks on their mom’s breasts while feeding

I am going to consider few important factors causing this behavior type in your babies.

1. Specific behavior patterns while nursing

There are series of behaviors that can be seen with babies especially passing six weeks of age.  These behaviors are quite painful for moms sometimes. These babies start by kicking their legs.  Then try to move their arms.  They punch the mom’s boobs and crunches against the mom with their little baby’s fist.

There are series of head movements that are there with those babies while nursing.  They pull their heads back and shakes the head back but still they maintain a firm latch on.  Some babies clamp down the nipple and pull back and wag their heads back and forth.  These babied produce grumbly grouchy noises while arching their back.

They show quite active while nursing.  Even though the mom’s supply is good,  Most of these behaviors occur due to the discomfort feeling of gas accumulation in the baby’s tummy.  If the mom can burp the baby in the mid-feed time then the baby experiences long and gassy farts which will comfort the baby very soon.  Also, make sure to feed your baby at their first signs of hunger then you can expect a calm baby feeding.  Finally, you can give a pacifier to your child and let them cry a little.  In this way, they will calm down and you can start feeding again.

2. Sometimes your baby bites while breastfeeding

 Scking breast milk is a skill.  So your newborn baby takes little time to master that skill.  Also, this needs concentration too.  at the very beginning, the baby is searching and rooting the breast to suck. So mom should stroke the baby’s cheek with the nipple and stimulate the baby once the nipple is in the mom’s mouth the mom should not perform search suggesting movements for the baby.   If the mom strokes the baby in the wrong manner,  it distracts your baby.  Then the baby starts with pulling their head and try to tug and pull his nipple. Sometimes they bite the nipple.

You can support your baby to focus on what they want to do and you can bond with your baby nicely to prevent this incidence.

If your baby is uncomfortable with the milk supply they start to bite your nipple.  So try to rule out the reasons for the low milk supply.  When law milk supply the baby try to turn their head and the body frantically searching, grasping and pulling hoping for more milk. also don’t try to provide an overactive milk supply where the baby might gag to reduce the letdown.

Teething can irritate your baby’s gums. They try to soothe themselves and alleviate the discomfort. This can happen at age 5 months to 2 years of age till the baby gets his/her full set of teeth. So baby bites the nipple frequently at these times and you can give them a cold towel or a toy and detaching him/her without frightening.

Babies naturally love to sleep on their mom’s breasts. So don’t try to pull them suddenly at those times. the baby will clamp hard the nipple at that time. So try to avoid this natural reaction of your baby. Try to tickle his chin in such situations instead of pulling them suddenly.

Most of the time the babies are creaky little creatures. They love certain actions that demonstrate cause and effect. They want to create the effect again. If you suddenly do the wrong reaction for the baby biting of the nipple, the baby tries to get the same reaction on and on. so they try to bite continuously. So moms need to prevent that type of cause-and-effect actions with their babies. 

3. Babies twiddle while breastfeeding 

This is totally a natural action for most older babies. Some researchers say that the baby trying to increase breast milk production and the let-down speed by twiddling. As the baby grows older they want more milk and need to come it out so fast.

Some parents notice that their babies do twiddling when they are overwhelmed or anxious. Normally this twiddling starts at 6 months of age. Dear parents, I don’t have a perfect answer on how to handle twiddling. Some breastfeeding parents choose to ignore it.

Twiddling might be painful for moms having irregular menstrual cycles. In this case, they try to avoid it as they are having painful breasts at this specific time.

Finally, I would say twiddling is certainly not uncommon. If your baby does it.No no worries.

4. Do sore or cracked nipples cause this problem

Your babies can’t attach and position with sore nipples. Even though breastfeeding is not comfortable you should not stop it. Sometimes babies are not effectively attaching to the mom’s breast then they can’t suck properly and create continuous milk flow. So they tend to kick their legs and start to do vigorous movements sometimes in order to create proper milk flow.

5. Is this a sign of lack of milk supply

Some babies become impatient with the slower milk flow. So various vigorous behavior patterns may or may not be slower let down. The mom’s feeding begins with a few drops of milk. Then with the passing of several seconds with constant feeding, the milk flow speeds up quite a  bit. At this time milk drips very quickly or even spray.

The minutes later the milk flow slows down and the baby sucks vigorously to prevent further letdowns. if you nurse your baby vigorously with this pattern for a long time, then the baby will learn the flow. So this vigorous suck and swallow mechanism can cause the most attacking body movements of your baby while feeding.

6.What happens with the bottle feeding

With the bottle feeding, the milk flow is instant and continuous. That is the reason why the babies prefer the ease of bottle feeding with few selected bottles as they have few bottles to feed. With bottles, the babies are required to work little. If you are interchanging the bottle feeding and breastfeeding, most babies may become frustrated at the first letdown that occurs with breastfeeding. They will struggle sometimes to increase the breast milk flow which may not happen instantly.

Make sure to use a bottle with newborn nipple type for as long as the baby will tolerate the milk flow. They never get a really fast milk flow and have to work a little more to get milk. So make sure to introduce the bottle feeding to your baby methodically with relevant milk flow of the nipple which is more similar to the breast nipple. Also, it can be helpful to compress the breast if any fussiness starts while breastfeeding or right before you expect it to.

If you feel the breast compression stops helping, you can switch into the other breast when the baby begins to fuss. By these simple methods, you can reduce the violent behavior patterns of your baby during feeding.

6. Final thoughts

Most of the time babies show various body movements to the mom’s breast while nursing. This may cause due to several reasons. Sometimes the babies are impatient with the slower milk flow and it is the main reason for its behavior. If you introduce both bottle feeding and breastfeeding at the same time, the milk flow rate may not be unique on two different occasions. You can get a unique and continuous milk flow rate through bottles. where the milk flow rate is quite different in the normal breast.

You need to introduce newborn nipple type to your baby with their bottle-feeding. Also, babies are doing normal movements tyes like twiddling while breastfeeding. You need to exclude the other main reasons for the nipple biting of your baby incorporate this attacking movement while breastfeeding.