Discipline

Whodathunk that at 10 months and a coupla weeks that a parent would have to discipline their baby? Certainly not me, not us! But as J gently sat LC down in his crib, and grabbed the paci out and we both stood back as he looked up at us his little face turning red and crying, J looked at me and said "we're entering a new realm as parents" - discipline, teaching, testing. I agreed. We watched him for a minute, I walked over to him, talked to him, and picked him up where he gave me a big hug and immediately calmed down.

The backstory:

Biting.

LC has had 8 teeth for a couple of months or so. He hasn't bitten hardly at all and by biting I mean me, when nursing. However with our transition into more finger foods, especially at dinnertime, he is learning what those teeth are used for - biting the spoon (he gets his own spoon at mealtimes to practice), chewing his food, chewing on his teethers, biting the coffee table, his crib, his books, his pack n' play, basically anything he can get his little mouth on.

And that's okay. But when it comes to biting his Mommy, that's a no-no.

The first night he did this, I pulled away, told him we do not bite Mommy, and he got all serious, looked up at me, acted like he understood he did something wrong. So I put him back on, and he did it again, I sat him on the floor, Daddy stopped reading the story, he crawled around, happy. Well, he needed to learn that he wasn't being put down to play, so we put him in his crib...and walked out of the room. He cried for a few minutes - I could tell he wanted the milk, but was just tired and frustrated. I let him cry for a minute (bad mother? I don't think so, he needs to learn and sometimes you need to 'lower the boom'), then I went in and picked him up, explained again what he did wrong, and we tried again. Success.

He still bites from time to time at our last nursing of the day - and if he does, he gets put in his crib and we try again a few minutes later.

Naturally I immediately consulted my LLL 'The Womanly Art of Breastfeeding' book about this issue. It said that it is NOT a sign they want to wean (I didn't think so), but that he is exploring and to be firm with him, create a physical distance (i.e. put him down on the floor or in the crib), and then try again, the idea being to start and stop a nursing session when the biting happens.

We try it and it seems to work. I still blame tiredness and frustration along with learning what his little chompers are for and I applaude him for learning and practicing so well.

Onward we go ...