Baby Brandi wailed loudly, her tiny face red and scrunched in distress. The small room echoed with her cries, piercing the calm of the afternoon. Her mother, exhausted and anxious, paced the floor in a flurry of confusion. Brandi had refused to feed for hours, her lips trembling but unwilling to latch onto her mother’s breast.
Desperate, the mother tried again to nurse, cradling Brandi gently. But as soon as the baby’s mouth touched her skin, a sharp cry rang out — louder than before. The mother pulled away, startled, and that’s when she saw it: a red mark on her breast, a tiny scratch from Brandi’s new teeth. In her hunger and confusion, Brandi had accidentally bitten instead of suckled.
Tears welled in the mother’s eyes — not from pain, but from guilt. She hadn’t realized her daughter was teething. The baby wasn’t rejecting her; she was in pain too. Every attempt to feed brought discomfort for both mother and child, and neither had known how to express it.
Frustration gave way to understanding. The mother cleaned the wound, then prepared a soft silicone nipple to ease the feeding process. She held Brandi close, rocking her gently until the cries turned to soft whimpers. When Brandi finally fed without tears, both mother and child found relief in each other’s warmth.
