PLEASE HELP newborn baby just won't try to latch

[cep]

My son was born early Thursday morning. he came quite quickly and swallowed some of the gunk on the way out. Therefore he wasn't interested in latching on and sucking. As the day went on he tried a couple of times but didn't really suck. This has carried on and now just cries whenever i try to get him to latch. I really don't know how to stop him crying for long enough. i've been expressing to try and bring in my milk, and am now starting to get a bit more, (is dripping easily) but he still won't even try most of the time. Has started sucking the nipple once in over 24hrs and only for a couple of seconds. The mw suggested giving him little expressed before trying but this still makes him cry (no surprise). I just wondered if anyone had any experience in this kind of thing and if so did you beat it and how. I really want to bf, i failed ds 1 and really don't want to fail this time.

Yay!
Well done you!
X

fab news

Well done good for you :)

grrr, stupid thing just kept coming off, he was chomping on the end, absolute nightmare. ended bottle feeding expressed again. It's just too big. the review said "not everyone's nipple is as big as a big toe" so it's not just me.

dh going back in tomorrow so will get small and medium medela ones, one has to fit.

Thank you all again for the other day, i am still optimistic.

Cep, sorry to not have read the thread thoroughly but up and down stairs to son trying to persuade him into a nap....

Re the tongue tie - there is no way of telling from looking at a tie whether it will or will not cause feeding problems - that's what the maxillofacial chappy who looked at DS's told me and I've heard it from a lactation consultant as well. Insignificant looking ties can cause major problems, major-looking ties can cause no problems. Doctors typically are not experienced in assessing tongue ties and neither are most midwives IMHO. DS's was missed by countless midwives and 2 BF counsellors, while the GP said tongue ties don't cause feeding problems (!).

So I would say it is completely possible the tongue tie is contribtuing or even causing these issues. Can you get it ligated pronto, it might sort out the issue completely? Where in the country are you and I will look up a contact on the LCGB website if you want as I know there's not much time when you've got two little ones!

PS the being able to latch with a shield coould well be indicative that the tie is causing problems - often babies with ties find it easier to suck on a bottle-shaped nipple rather than a nipple-shaped-nipple if you see what I mean.

Sorry to keep posting in dribs and drabs (thank you DS!), but if I were you I would call the midwife today or tomorrow, and ask for a tongue tie referral. If she won't do it, and if funds are available (likely to be around £70) then you will probably be able to get it done privately very rapidly -e.g., within a week. It's a shame for you to be struggling when there might be an easily rectifiable cause and you don't want to be faffing around using nipple shields/ expressing etc if you don't have to.

Thankyou narmada i will talk to them about it again. i got an avent one today and that seems to be working ok so far. But it would be so much easier if i didn't have to worry about it. Unfortunately i can't afford to go private.

It's great that the smaller avent shield is doing the job - hurray. You can always wean off the sheilds at a later date but I do hope the midwife refers you pronto. Tongue tie is such a pain :(