I have some questions for you lovely ladies.

[Hermya321]

Hi,

My DS is six days old and I have a few questions. He's my first so you'll have to forgive me if the questions are a little bit over anxious.

He's breastfeeding well and is a good weight with lots of dirty/wet nappies so I'm not too concerned about that. DS also has a suck like a hoover and you can hear him clugging the milk across the room.

1, He seems to be latching well, but when he does it feels uncomfortable but I'm not in agony ifyswim. My nipples are sore, but not unduely so. I've been using lansinoh and so far so good. The only thing I can equate it to is that I'm very aware that he's sucking. Is this normal? The midwives have checked the latch and they say he's fine.

2, Do I need to restrict my caffine intake at all?

3, Do the foods I eat affect him? Is there anything I need to advoid?

4, Also he flails his arms a lot when he's coming to the breast and I need to move his arms in order to get my nipple anywhere near his mouth. I'm not going to give him bad memories which will result in him refusing the breast later when doing this am I? I've tried swaddling but he hates that, so moving his arms seemed the lesser of two evils.

Thanks for your help. [hsmile]

1. sounds normal to me. My nipples were sore for the first few weeks but only for the initial few sucks then wasn't painful at all.

2. not too sure to be honest. Inever did but i don't drnk coffee anyway and only a few cups of tea a day.

3. No food as affected my milk or the taste. DD has always loved her milk whatever i ate.

Congratulations! On your new baby, and on the bf, sounds like it's going really well.

Am no expert, but bf my two for a year apiece, so will try to help...

1. Sounds normal, after you've been feeding for a few weeks the sensitivity lessens or goes completely I found. If it's ever getting more than just an 'awareness' then do seek help though.

2 and 3. Yes, traces of all proteins and 'drugs' go through your bm. But some things affect some babies and not others, eg mine have food allergies so we had some issues until I gave up dairy. Some friends have reported problems with orange juice/wine/garlic. Unless you're on 10 cups of coffee a day, I wouldn't worry about changing your intake or diet at all unless you notice a marked change in your baby (eg problems pooing, stomach pains, colicky symptoms) - only then would I start thinking about what you're consuming. It's hard enough anyway without restricting your diet!

1. Sounds normal, he's probably just beside himself with excitement! As he gets older and his movements get more coordinated, he'll just start grabbing you instead.... You absolutely will not give him bad memories!

Sounds like it's going great, but there's loads of support on here for any problems as you go along.

Congratulations on your new DS!

1. • shouldn't be uncomfortable but it could be that you are both getting used to it since he's only 6 days old and your milk probably only came in a few days ago. I'd give it a bit longer and if it's still uncomfortable, see if you could pop along to a BF cafe for some advice

2 and 3) What you eat and drink does get through to your breast milk, so you should be sensible, but you don't have to go crazy. So caffine in moderation rather than not at all.

There is lots of very useful information on all aspects of BF on Kelly Mom, including a section on mother's diet www.kellymom.com/nutrition/mom/index.html here]]. Also on Babycentre.

Interestingly, a friend of mine who is a doctor wanted to know if alcohol (which can also get through to your breastmilk) basically collects in the milk in your breasts until the next feed, and so it doens't matter whether leave a gap between drinking and feeding your baby (because the baby will still get a bit of the alcohol) or whether the alcohol milk in your breasts basically disperses over time, so that if you have a drink straight after a feed, and then next feed a few hours later, the alcohol will basically have gone. She found some medical research which showed that the alcohol disperses, so that made her a lot happier about drinking in moderation while BF-ing!

4. Sounds absolutely fine to me! When my DD got a bit older I was basicallly pinning her down to stop her fiddling about with her arms / hands while BF!

Good luck - as you probably know there are mothers will every single experience to do with BF on here so you will always find some advice on any BF issue.

Sorry, trying again with the Kelly Mom linkhere!

Second the kellymom site, I found it totally invaluable.

Congrats!

This is what works for me, but again I'm no expert

1. A little discomfort can be expected at the beginning, just try to make sure it doesn't progress into anything worse. Keep an eye on the latch, don't be afraid to take him off until you feel its just right. A good tip my midwife gave me is to make sure that your nipples don't change shape after a feed (ie at an angle) because that can become a sore spot.

2. Caffeine should be restricted, I tend to have one cup of coffee in the day and maybe a fizzy drink.

3. So many people have said to me about breast milk being affected by what you eat and baby not liking it. But I've never noticed any difference!

4. This is perfectly normal. To try and control this I tend to tuck one of my DDs arms under mine and she holds my finger with her other hand.

I found it uncomfortable/sore initially too - I seem to remember it getting much better after a week or 10 days or so. I used lansinoh for the first couple of weeks.

I don't restrict anything in my diet. I don't worry about alcohol either - so long as you're not so drunk you'll drop the baby or roll on him in your sleep you're fine imo.

I still have to pin ds's lower arm under my arm pit when I feed him now, and he's 3 months old! Doesn't seem to unduly bother him though.

Mybed what does it mean if they do change shape?

1. It will get more comfortable as you both get used to it.

2. I drink quite a bit of coffee, but it tends to be instant rather than filter, there's a lot more caffeine in real coffee. Don't have too much, but don't stop completely if you enjoy it.

3. Your milk will taste differently, but as others have said, no need to change anything without reason, eg. if he's having trouble digesting.

4. Don't worry about it at all. :)

If the nipple comes out distorted (longer on the tongue side for example) it can indicate a poor latch I think.

I find if one side gets slightly raised it can be the beginning of a blister.I got quite bad blisters to begin with, but what I will say is nipples can heal very quickly.

Ah right, I see. No I noticed one of them comes out shaped slightly like a lipstick (longer on the roof of the mouth side) sometimes, I didn't really think that much of it tbh.

Thank you for answering all of my other questions though and for the link, you've put my mind at ease. [hsmile]

Hermya32 - Congratulations on the birth of your first baby. You sound like you are doing a fab job of caring for your baby.

I think most of your q's have been answered by others but 4)is actually your baby's feeding reflexes which are in built to aid bfing but they can get in the way of 'traditional' nursing (i.e. sitting upright w/ baby across lap). They work with you when you do 'laid back' nursing (aka biological nurturing). They are only around for the 1st 6 weeks or so, so you won't be battling with an octopus baby for ever or lolling around in bed either .

Lipstick shaped nipples can mean latch needs a bit of work - the shaping is caused by the nipple being compressed by the baby's tongue against the hard palate instead of the soft palate (run your finger along the top of your mouth - you'll feel the difference there!). That may be the cause of the discomfort you are feeling. Getting baby to latch a bit deeper will help ease this as will not continuing with a latch that hurts after about 10 seconds (gently break the suction and try again).

Is there a La Leche League/NCT/Breastfeeding Network/NHS breastfeeding group in your area that you could go to to get face to face advice? Sometimes it's seeing someone in RL that helps tweak a latch. It may be only a tiny change that makes all the difference.

For example (I'm a breastfeeding peer supporter) I helped one mum who was experiencing just a little bit of discomfort during a feed. After observing her latch on her baby I suggested just bringing in the baby 1/2" closer to her and fractionally more 'tummy to mummy' (as baby was slightly angled away from her) and suddenly mum felt like she wasn't even feeding it was so comfy.

You may be thisclose to pain-free feeding it's just difficult to see online. Good luck and keep up the good work (and sorry for epic post )

Truth Thank you for your reply, I've looked into it and there is a local breastfeeding group which I'm going to go along to this week (this being dependant on me making it out of the house).

Apparently caffeine via your bm stays in the baby's system for something like 90 hours (according to the AskMoxie blog, at least) so I'd be cautious but not paranoid about coffee. Kellymom usually has the best info IMO.

I was told by midwives that lipstick shaped nipples were a sign of poor latch too.