Hi, I'm Sonja from Wellington, New Zealand. I've been a LLLL for 11 plus years. I moved to leader Reserve  a couple of years back but maintained a lot of the health professional contact work due to my general bent towards the "science of breastfeeding" and extensive experience. I ahve five children David 17, Natasha 15, Anastasia 11, Toby 9 and Jonathan 7 months. Having effectively "lurked" for a week or so I am trying to take it easy today and ignore my tornado messy house. And while I have had responses to lots of posts your's sounds kind of urgent Rob - have you considered aclinical thrush in the baby's mouth? I had a counselling call a few years ago with a mother and baby about the same age doing this and the following week the baby had obvious thrush which when treated stopped the chomping within a day or so. The behaviour had been going on a couple of weeks before that though.I didn't pick it - she rang me back to tell me and there have also been a couple of mother's since who have reported this symptom.
Also re: cystic breasts and blocked ducts - the reason I'm taking it easy today and subject of another post. With my fourth baby I had a cyclical blocked duct on one side where the tenderness was related to hormonal influences ie I got it around every four weeks even before my periods returned. After treating it seriously the first threee months - I started ignoring it - just taking it easy those couple of days and keeping that side fairly empty. I decided itmight be some early cystic growth (my mother has them) which has since been confirmed with time. I suspect that's my problem today although it is the other side - its also where I have had a lump checked. i'm curious about the hot/cold debate but at the blocked duct stage this morning I'd argue heat helps cold doesn't. It's winter here and it throbs when I'm cold - a  warm shower made me feel a lot better.
I've really been enjoying the reading and it has been really helpful - the main reaon I joined was I getting a it stuck on some cases of baby's refusing the breast and the archives and some of the discussion about oral aversion was a big boost at a point when we were running out of ideas.

             ***********************************************
The LACTNET mailing list is powered by L-Soft's renowned
LISTSERV(R) list management software together with L-Soft's LSMTP(TM)
mailer for lightning fast mail delivery. For more information, go to:
http://www.lsoft.com/LISTSERV-powered.html