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Infant feeding

Engorged breasts unable to latch

7 replies

timolean · 13/06/2016 05:16

My lo is only 4days old, established feeding well in hospital but my milk has arrived with a vengeance and he has been struggling to latch in the last 24hrs.
The last feed I gave up trying to latch as my boobs are so sore and gave expressed milk, prior to this I've been hand expressing to relieve pressure and undressing him to get him to latch, when that failed I tried pumling then latching on, which worked eventually, when this didn't work at the next feed i ended up in the shower.
Mum at the end of my tether already! I feel like I'm trying everything and now terrified of each coming feed.
Any advice greatly received

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TheABC · 13/06/2016 05:36

Hang in ththere; your boobs will adjust. I found expressing then cupping mine helped my baby latch. Offer them your boob almost like a sandwich. I also found it easier to lie down to feed with the baby on top - let gravity do the work for you!

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Loraline · 13/06/2016 06:16

I put heat packs (lansinoh do them) on before feeding to soften them up and hand expressed a bit. I also then had to squeeze my breast between thumb and forefinger to allow ds to latch. Was a real struggle for a few days with ds1 but it doesn't last long.

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clippityclop · 13/06/2016 06:17

I had this, and a midwife advised me to bop dd on the nose with my nipple. Sounds weird but this made her sort reach up and latch on in a more definite way.

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Celia1978 · 13/06/2016 06:24

Google 'reverse pressure softening'. Basically pushing around your nipple with your fingers - it softens up the area and makes latching easier. Good luck!

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timolean · 13/06/2016 16:20

Thanks ladies, the night time madness/anxiety has settled, continuing with attempting to latch and giving a bottle of expressed milk if no success.

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Loraline · 13/06/2016 20:51

This is a really tough phase so well done for pushing through it. You'll get there

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plantsitter · 14/06/2016 15:30

this Kellymom page helped me enormously when DD1 was tiny.

Good luck!

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