re: toddler biting and pulling in close to breast to "smother" the child
to stop the biting.

First, I'm sure whoever posted about this did not mean that one is to
hold the child's nose against the breast for a period of time anywhere
near that which would seriously affect the child's ability to breath.

The idea is that if you momentarily sort of moosh their nose against the
breast, the child will have to open their mouth to breath, thus they
cannot bite.I assume at the same time you are telling the child, "no,
no, you cannot bite mommy, that hurts me", something like that.Maybe add
"if you bite mommy you cannot nurse, it really hurts me." As Judy said,
a toddler is usually able to understand such things.Not that this will
prevent a toddler from ever biting down again. . . just like everything
else you tell a toddler, you have to keep saying it over and over!

One of my co-leaders in Baltimore always told moms that if the baby or
toddler was biting down , the worst thing to do is to abruptly pull the
baby off the breast, altho this is the reaction most moms would have.
This is because you can injure your nipple pulling the baby off like
that.(or at least in theory). She would suggest immediately pulling the
baby in close- the same idea .
then the baby cannot breath through the nose momentarily, and has to
un-latch to do mouth breathing.
I don't think I myself have ever tried this. I never had bitey-babies,
and my bitey-toddlers tended to bite down only when dozing off, and that
is a different matter. . .  or else the bitey-toddlers will bite OTHER
parts of the body when awake, my current toddler likes to bite when mad.