breastfeeding - nipple feeding

[goldenpeach]

My baby daughter likes to nipple feed. She is nearly 11 weeks and doesn't want to get out of the habit. Spoke to various medical people and learnt tricks to make her take more breast in but she gags and then slides down to nipple (canny girl). Of course it was very painful at the beginning and it's still painful, a bit less since my poor nipples got used to it but the throbbing pain at latching and afterwards is still very uncomfortable. Tried to get her interested in a bottle of formula (at least one to give some relief in the evening) in the early days and stopped when the milk supply was bigger and when I started again a few days again she made a huge fuss and didn't want the bottle unless forced, which wasn't that nice for us. I expressed my milk and she still wasn't happy. She seems obsessed by breasts! Any tips?

I fed both my boys until they were two, and quite often found the initial latching on painful, but only for a few seconds, once they got going it was ok so I just put up with it. I had a friend who bottlefed and she talked about the baby screaming the place down at night while she struggled to get the right temperature bottle, whilst I used to pick them up, plug them in and go back to sleep, without having to get out of bed. I wouldn't recommend the bottle. Have you tried feeding lying down next to your baby so gravity helps push the boob into her mouth?

You say medical people but have you seen a bf counsellor? IME, other medical people are quite useless when it comes to bfing.

My DS used to do this too but my bf counsellor made me keep taking him off every time he slipped until he eventually got a better latch.

And I think it's quite normal for breastfed babies to be obsessed by breasts

ps you might get more of a response if you post this in the bfing topic under feed the world

Yes, I spoke to counsellors. I posted the message on the forum you mentioned. I have abandoned the bottle route and I'm soldiering on. Yes, I feed lying down at times.

Try posting on www.iwantmymum.com, it's a BF support site with lots of BFC's who can help - there is a post about nipple feeding on there at the moment (unless it's you already of course )