apologizing to my baby

So... 

We've been navigating the waters of biting while nursing.

A friend of mine told me that when her child bit her she made a loud reaction and that scared him enough to never bite her again. Remembering this story, I tried the same tactic. My result was much different. 

The first time TheLittleBear bit me, I was caught off guard and shouted, "Ouch!" I didn't mean to startle TLB or to cause a fuss. I was startled myself. The next couple of times I purposely made a loud fuss hoping she would see the negative reaction to her biting and stop. This was not the case. 

We ended up in a nursing strike because TLB was upset that I was scaring her with my reactions. 

It was hard not to react when sharp little teeth would bite me. 

I should have done my own research and not reacted.

KellyMom has a great article about this. 

I spent a day pumping and coaxing her back to the breast. When that didn't work, I was heartbroken. I truly thought that my breastfeeding days were behind us and I would never share that bond with her again. I wasn't ready. I wasn't ready to end the cuddles. I wasn't ready to not see her cute little face as she nursed. And I wasn't ready to have to clean numerous bottles at the end of the night. 

During a deflated moment when I was changing her diaper, I looked into her eyes and apologized. I apologized for scaring her and not reading up about appropriate reactions. I gave her a hug and a kiss. 

After that moment, things started to turn around. She first let me hold her in our normal nursing position. I started with nursing her to nap (which I never usually do). After that nap she started nursing like usual again. 

I believe that apologizing to her was the key. Sometimes as parents we make mistakes. I think it's important to let our children see that we make mistakes and show them how we fix them. Learning how to handle different situations is more important to me than to have my child think I'm perfect :)