Breastfeeding bad latch = unhappy baby?

[emilyanorak]

My DD is now 6 weeks old and we have been breastfeeding. Her latch isn't good but it's been working though over the last week as her latch is getting worse she's been in real discomfort and cries all the time when not feeding or not in the sling. She looks in real pain pulling her legs up. We give her a bottle at night after a feed to top up and she doesn't take much and she has good nappies but LOTS of poos with big farts! I sure she is getting enough food but is the latch causing her to take in air and making her cry the rest of the time? I've been to breastfeeding support groups lots with her and my DS who is 2. I don't time now, what with a toddle to keep going again or to spend all day holding her and feeding her which is the old thing that settles her, she feeds for 5-10 at a time. She's also gone from sleeping 4-6 hours at night to just 2 and waking in pain.
I'm not considering bottle feeding to see if it helps her and if it is in fact the terrible latch causing her discomfort.
Has anybody had this problem? Any advice! She sleeps in a baby hammock so her head is up, we swaddle her also.
My husband can't even hold her during the day now as all she does is cry in discomfort so I have to feed her!

Sorry that should read *i am considering bottle feeding

Why aren't the groups helping with latch? Have you had her checked for tongue tie? You'll need an expert though as many bf counsellors miss them.

We go to the groups, we spend an hour trying to get her on, she does and they are say 'she's ok!'. I can do this at home, in fact I do! She latches on ok probably twice a day the rest are rubbish 😞

She's a bit older so would have thought she'd be getting there now.

It sounds so similar to my experience - would get a good latch about 20% of the time but she'd come off then couldn't rematch properly. Or couldn't get her on properly. She had tongue and lip tie which meant it was too difficult for her to stay on :(

I got a qualified lactation consultant over who specialist in ties who spotted it a mile off.

Worth doing. And if you switch to FF, I wouldn't beat yourself up! I nearly did but dd was intolerant to cows milk so I struggled on and finally got it sorted. But I went through hell to get there and not sure it was sensible especially as I also had a toddler.

Does she come off once on?

My ds had the issue of latching on and off many times during a feed, it was exausting, lots of tears, milk gushing out, sore boobs, baby screaming his head off.... you name it. The only way I could feed was lying down on my side, which is a bit difficult to do in the park or during the school run... anyway, I started mix feeding at around two months and he was happy to BF lying down three or four times a day, and had two bottles of formula on top of that. Mix feed until 9 months old, it worked for us.

Have you tried BF lying down? or rugby hold? also check that her nose is away from your skin, to give her lots of space to breath so she doesn't have to latch off.

By the way, I found out much later on that my son has Dyspraxia, which affects coordination, speech, and affects the muscles in his face which is why I think he struggled with BF.

Agree with Iggly also, don't beat yourself up if you switch to formula.

One of the breastfeeding support group ladies actually came out to me, could be worth asking if the people in your area can visit you?

My DS had tongue tie and even though we got it snipped he still wouldn't latch properly. He'd latch OK if my breasts were really full, but as soon as they were softer and he'd have to suck harder for the hindmilk his latch would get bad and very painful for me. He had loads of poos but I could tell they were painful and sometimes they were explosive/green. Google foremilk/hindmilk - it might help you too. Drinking a lot of foremilk and not getting the hindmilk can lead to stomach upsets, explosive poos and more frequent feeding as the baby isn't getting the filling milk so ends up hungry more often.

In the end what worked for me was nipple shields. They're not usually recommended because people are worried the baby won't get enough milk, but for me it worked wonders as they meant I could feed DS painfree (so could preserve my sanity but continue breastfeeding which was important to me) and he got all the milk he needed (I had a very big supply). It took until he was about 6 months and then I could feed him without the shields, I think the fact that his mouth/tongue were bigger enabled him to have a proper latch. All professionals were very skeptical (breastfeeding counsellors, GP, nurse) but I'm glad I made that decision myself as it was right for me and DS.