A baby’s photo shoot is not something they will remember, but for parents, it is a way to commemorate a special time in their lives. The cuteness, the giggles, the coos, and the precious milestones are everything.
And of course, bite marks. At some point, your little one will leave teeth marks on something – or someone. The bite may be on a teething biscuit, a carrot, or the playground, but for many moms, it’s on the breast. Ow! It’s like having a soft, cute, cuddly piranha in your arms.
Mom Kayla Seitz found a way to combine the joys and pangs of motherhood with a unique baby photo shoot that was also a homage to nursing. Sort of. Her 9-month-old baby girl, Sophie, is a biter. To demonstrate that, Seitz dressed her up in a shark costume and had her pose with a boob-shaped cake.
She took to it right it away because as you can see from the photo, the cake has a missing a chunk and the inside of it is red – as are Sophie’s hands and lips. Seitz shared the hilarious pics on Facebook to mark the survival of nine months of breastfeeding.
It perfectly captures the essence of being gnawed on while nursing a teething baby. Seitz told PopSugar:
“Here’s to surviving nine months of breastfeeding. Since Sophie has started teething, my family has called her Sophie Shark because she is harsh with the . . . ninny. I had to do some cute photos to remind me how painful it is and to not have any more kids!”
If you’ve ever breastfed, you know that sometimes gums and teeth can bring the pain when you least expect it. While not all nursing babies bite, pediatricians say that the most common reasons for it are teething, boredom, or your baby shark is trying to squeeze out more food.
For moms who are going through this right now, docs advise that you should gently slip your finger in between the baby’s gum and your breast to release the latch. Repositioning helps, but if your little one is teething, soothe her with a teething toy or something cold to bite on. Laughing through the pain like this mom is one way to cope, but nipple cream and a call to the doctor may also help.
Seitz credits Kelli’s Cake’s Gone Wild in Florida for the special confection and Ida Logan Photography for the adorable photos. A click on the Facebook post will you allow to see each gleeful pic in the series, with baby Sophie throwing her hands up over the demolished boob in the final shot.
Echoes of real life? The shark costume is as fitting as a vampire one for this stage of life, but at least moms have a sense of humor about this temporary situation. And baby sharks like Sophie are the kind we wouldn’t mind listening to all day (unlike perhaps the other baby shark we all know).
Can you relate to this mom’s experience? Was your baby a biter too? What do you think of the funny baby shark photo shoot?