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Infant feeding

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

Help! Prem baby 6 weeks old and BF not going so well :(

3 replies

missmo10 · 01/12/2010 17:22

My baby was 4 1/2 weeks early so had a nice 2 week stint in neonatal. Started breastfeeding from the start and offered expressed milk by bottle from around 10 days to top up feeds and help weight gain. Feeding was never sore at the hospital.

Got home and had 2 bouts of mastitis in early days. Now dealing with ongoing sore nippples and at my wits end. Left seems to be worse. Skin all appears normal, no cracks etc but feel tender between feeds. During feeds almost feels like baby is grating/sharp pain on sides of nipples. No pain in breasts. Baby gaining weight and lots of full nappies. HV and breastfeeding advisor have both watched feeds and said latch looks ok but careful about comfort sucking as doesnt always appear to be swallowing at end of feeds. Nipples sometimes mildly flattened/lipstick. have tried different holds and find rugby ball most comfy.

Am expressing at night (dad gives expressed milk by bottle)and no grating pain, just the tenderness still.

Feel its all going wrong and getting so sore :( Any thoughts? Could this still be latch? Thrush seems to be a common thread on here?

Any advice would be very welcome :)

OP posts:
lunafire · 01/12/2010 18:37

Has the baby been checked for tongue tie?

gummymum · 03/12/2010 23:06

Sounds very familiar!
You are doing so well considering the baby was early and on NICU for so long.
I'm sure we have a latch problem and sometimes things are worse than others. We are also now being treated for thrush (although I think this is hard to diagnose the treatment is easy so worth doing)
See your GP about the thrush and have a low threshold for treating. See as many people as you can to check the latch and keep trying.
Best of luck!

AngelDog · 04/12/2010 08:42

I think lipstick shaped nipples usually indicate problems with the latch. Kellymom has some info I think. Agree with gummymum on getting as many opinions as you can on the latch.

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