Is a bad latch really the end of the world?

[BoSho]

My DS is 11 weeks old, and is feeding well and gaining weight well but he has a terrible latch and always has done. I've been to a lactation specialist who showed me how to do it, but I just can't get it right (I'd need another hand to be able to shove him on like they did) and when I do, DS pulls away anyway.

I've never had cracked nipples, and apart from occasional shooting pains in my breasts after feeding, which I suspect might be thrush, all seems to be going fine.

I wonder whether I'm causing myself more problems in the long run, or whether a poor latch just means DS takes longer to feed. Should I be worried or is this OK?

What do you mean by a bad latch? If it's not hurting you and your ds is feeding well and gaining weight then I'm not sure there's a problem.

My ds also has never latched like the babies in the books, but it seems to work ok for us.

Yeah, I think of a good latch as the ones you see in the books, where a good part of the areola is in their mouth and they're getting lots of milk because he's sucking in the most efficient way. What my ds actually does is suck the nipple, sometimes a little bit more.

He sometimes fusses at the breast though, and has wind so bad that he screams in pain until he gets it out, and I wonder whether he fusses because he'd like to get more milk, and is in pain because he's gulping in too much air. I'm a good winder BTW, so that isn't the cause.

Maybe I'm just worrying unnecessarily. The fussing is probably nothing, and the pain thing is probably colic....

If you think he's not getting milk out very efficiently I think that would be a problem - is he gaining weight well?

Wel, it's only the fussing that makes me think he isn't getting enough. He usually seems satisfied, and pukes quite a bit. He is slightly below average weight wise, but we live in Amsterdam, and the average 21 yr old is 6 '2" (!), but since my DH and I are both English, we're not worried.

Just BF now - seems the fussing is because he needs to fart

As others have said, if everything else is ok ie you're not in pain, and he is gaining weight ok then it doesn't have to be a textbook latch.

BUT,

DS2 has always had a rubbish latch - he hoovers up the nipple instead of doing a big mouth- but we got away with it right up until his top teeth came through. It turned into a nip from his top teeth every time he latched. It was definitely a latching problem rather than a biting problem.

We worked on getting a better latch and it's mostly ok, but occasionally when I'm not really paying attention, I get nipped, usually at night. Ouch.

It certainly wouldn't do any harm to try to improve the latch at this stage. Preferable to running into problems and then trying to deal with dodgy latch amongst other things.

I've been wondering the same as I often have a lipstick shaped nipple on the left - however we have no other issues at all, and I'm nor sure if I need to sort this out?

That's interesting mawbroon - my ds is similar in that he's never tilted his head back and done the wide mouth (never managed to get the nose to nipple thing to work) and as he's getting bigger he tends to lanuch himself at the nipple even more. I hadn't thought that it might be a problem with teeth.

OK, thanks for the warning mawbroon, and ouch indeed! I'll keep trying to improve and hope I don't run into the old bitten nipple problem. Nice to know I'm not alone though.