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Infant feeding

Get advice and support with infant feeding from other users here.

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Original poster

Nipple Sheilds

17 replies

DuelingFanjo · 20/09/2010 11:45

Please can someone explain why these are not a good thing to have to help with breastfeeding?

Saw them mentioned in another thread and people seem against them.

What exactly are they for in the first place and how can they make problems better or worse?

OP posts:

Original poster

DuelingFanjo · 20/09/2010 11:46

Woops - sorry shields

OP posts:

bluedogfan · 20/09/2010 11:53

Hi - I'm not really sure why they are frowned upon but I know for some people it's not a choice to use them. My daughter was poorly when she was born & was fed via a tube up her nose for 4 days. By the time she was better she couldn't get the hang of 'normal' breastfeeding. As I was desperate to breastfeed a nurse suggested a nipple shield as a last-ditch attempt. It worked & although I tried constantly to wean my daughter off it she couldn't suck normally. I breastfed her until she was 1 year old & she was only happy without the shield in the last 3 weeks before she came off the breast! I suppose I've yet to see the full effects of using the shield but at the moment she's a happy, healthy 2 year old with good speech! :)

SirBoobAlot · 20/09/2010 11:59

They're normally used to help with painful nipples, flat nipples or to aid latching with premature babies.

The problems with the are that they can seriously affect milk supply, especially whilst its establishing, the baby can get too used to them so they aren't able to latch on without them, they can decrease the amount of milk that baby is getting, and they can cause more nipple pain / damage.

This is a good sheet with basic info.

HTH :)

frikonastick · 20/09/2010 12:02

they worked for me, meant the difference between breastfeeding and not at all.

as it worked fine for us, i never tried to wean DD off them at all. just used them until we finished breastfeeding.

as far as i am concerned, anything that helps is a good thing :) and there is no 'right' or 'wrong' way. just what works.

Original poster

DuelingFanjo · 20/09/2010 13:13

Thank you :)
I've been reading KellyMom too - just trying to get as much info as I can before Dec as I hope to breastfeed and want to be as informed as possible.

OP posts:

meltedmarsbars · 20/09/2010 13:18

I used them too for the first baby, and managed to wean her off them. Didn't need them for the rest of them.

It was actually the home-visiting midwife who stuck the teat of the bottle onto me - I'd almost given up bf and then she sent my dh out to buy some shields.

Don't close your mind to techniques that might help, no matter what the literature says.

meltedmarsbars · 20/09/2010 13:20

The fact that the shields have been manufactured since the 1500's tells you something, doesn't it!!

fairydusty · 20/09/2010 13:24

i used them as it was a choice between that and giving up breastfeeding. My lo is 15 weeks and we still use them i have tried to stop but he doesn't latch properly and i get really sore again. i was told it can affect the milk supply but i have been lucky and this hasn't happened - i do find it a little harder to feed discretly but apart from that we get on fine.

StarlightMcKenzie · 20/09/2010 13:27

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frikonastick · 20/09/2010 14:33

why do you need a strategy for coming off them? i mean, if they work and everyone is doing fine, where is the need?

i had a midwife tell me that using nipple shields wasnt the 'right' way to do it and i should make a much more concerted effort to do without.

this attitude baffles me. who cares HOW you do it as long as it works for you and your baby?

StarlightMcKenzie · 20/09/2010 14:48

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Message withdrawn

frikonastick · 20/09/2010 14:51

huh, learn something new everyday :)

StarlightMcKenzie · 20/09/2010 14:57

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marzipananimal · 20/09/2010 15:40

I'm using them with my nearly 3 week old ds. It was that or give up breastfeeding (in fact i had given up until I got them). I needed them because ds was totally incapable of latching on at all properly and it was soooo painful trying to get him to. They have made feeding mostly painless and I haven't had any supply issues so far. I do want to wean him off them though as it would be difficult to use them discreetly in public (haven't tried yet) and it's a faff having to wash and sterilise them all the time when you just want to feed or sleep.
I think using them risks giving the baby nipple confusion but we'd already given him bottles so can't be any worse than that!

In summary, definitely keep them in mind in case you do have problems, and make sure your DH/DP knows where he can get them from in a hurry, but try to keep them as a last resort. hth

gaelicsheep · 28/09/2010 00:26

Coming a bit late to this, but nipple shields are a wonderful thing to help with breastfeeding! I'm still using them at 3 months and have no plans to stop. Feeding is still painful without and I just don't see the point of putting myself through it if I don't have to. The only downside is that feeding isn't as spontaneous as you have to make sure you always have a clean shield to hand, and it's a bit of a faff in public, but otherwise I won't hear a word said against them. Without them I'd have had to give up, there is no question of that. They also helped DD to learn to open her mouth wider to get a better latch and thereby get more milk, not less.

IMoveTheStars · 28/09/2010 00:30

I wish I'd remembered about nipple shields when I was BFing DS, it might have helped me carry on a bit longer.

Get some in, it can't hurt, and see how you go. :)

newbielisa · 28/09/2010 08:38

I used nipple shields when damaged nipples became infected. We only used for about 5 days and to be honest I'd have had to give up bf without them as the pain was excruciating. LO was about 4 weeks at the time, I think, it's all blurred now. We had no problems with the lactivists concerns of nipple confusion and dd refusing the nipple afterwards. In fact it helped in an unexpected way due to the introduction of a different texture but with the security of mummy behind the shield she then went on to accept bottles and takes expressed milk when we're out.

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