The biting baby is now 5 1/2 weeks old.  His mom has had one fully
comfortable latch and few minutes of nursing, so she's had a glimpse of
normal, but in the wee hours this morning she tried again, and he chomped.

I certainly understand why she keeps trying to nurse, and she understands
that she needn't despair when he bites after a few minutes of reasonable
nursing, but it sure would be nice if we could come up with some way for
them to spend a little time cuddling and nursing while they work through this.

Tell me if I'm nuts.  What if we bend a paperclip and sandwich it between
two nipple shields, the idea being that if he suddenly chomps, the
paperclip will act as a "chock" that keeps him from nailing her.  She's
tried a plain nipple shield, and he can still bite through it.  There's
also the issue of milk flow.  If this gizmo kept him from biting her, it
would at least allow them fall-asleep nursings (He's also a
wide-awake-at-night baby), which he seems to really like, once his tummy
is full using some other method.  Another thought, if it's a rousing
success in protecting her, would be to thread a tube through it so that
they can nurse full-time.

So tell me.  Is this crazy?  Does it spur any other wild ideas from you folks?
(The purpose of bending the paperclip would be to make it fit.  The clip
is longer than the nipple;  bending it allows some of it to fit on the
flanged part.)

Diane Wiessinger, MS, IBCLC, LLLL  Ithaca, NY [log in to unmask],
who once made a plaster cast of her breast and a latex mold therefrom, to
try to create a series of breasts with less and less nipple and more and
more firmness, to try to entice a baby onto a very flat-nippled, very firm
breast.  A terrific idea.  Didn't work.  Doesn't mean I won't try it again!