One nipple chewed to pieces-help!

[IceCreamCastles]

Breastfeeding ds (11 days).

He had a small Tongue tie snipped on Tuesday but is still making me very sore on one side.

I struggle to get him to open his mouth wide so latching tends to be a bit of a grab and shove affair.

The first few seconds is excruciating, then if he's on well it's ok until near the end of the feed when it feels like he's chewing/pinching etc.

I don't know whether to take him off at this point or not- will he be getting a full feed if I do?

On the positive side, the other side feels much better, he'd gaining weight well, plenty of nappies and he sleeps for a few hours at a time at night and is pretty settled in between feeds.

I feel for you, my LO had mild tongue tie and couldn't latch till a couple of weeks after it was snipped.. An excellent idea to express to give your poor boob a break, shields are also useful, the soft silicone ones are much better than older hard ones, if baby struggles to latch they help, but babies can start to prefer them to the straight boob.

Thank you for the support. Have had a couple of more comfortable feeds this morning.

He is being weighed today so if he's gained well that will be a good confidence boost. If he hasn't I'll be gutted.

I know there is a lactation consultant locally- do I contact her directly of need a referral?

I got the midwife to contact the one here but I think you can also contact them direct. Sometimes your local drop in can refer you on too. I would just give her a ring if you have the number

Hooray! Must be doing something right- he's gained 7oz in 5 days!

Oh brilliant news, that must be really encouraging. Fantastic weight gain.

Brilliant!!! Well done

Hi again. Tried the Avent nipple shields for 3 feeds. They take less but the combination of that, Lansinoh and the Jelonet dressing (you can get it from Amazon) has given them a chance to heal, so am now alternating shield/bare and - touch huge amounts of wood - seems to be going OK. In the sense am not dripping blood all over their faces anymore!!!

That sounds positive stinkingbishop. Not sure I could cope with actual blood!

We are getting on ok here. I'm happier with latch and it's far less painful to latch him on.

Have a new problem though- he is still clamping down towards the end of the feed so I'm having to take him off and start which is fine apart from the fact that it's really hard to feed him to sleep as the taking off wakes him up. Any ideas??

I get the clamping too.

Any tips out there?

I don't necessarily have any tips regarding the clamping but have an idea why it may happen. Sometimes baby might be dozing a bit and just enjoying the end of the feed which is quite slow rich drops of super fatty milk. Sometimes at this point they might accidentally trigger another let down and they might not have wanted to do therefore clamp down to slow the flow. Just an idea. I can only suggest maybe to try and preempt this and be 'on guard' so to speak. These things are usually phased so sure it won't keep on happening forever ..

Anyone else have any ideas?

Usually 'just a phase' is what I meant!

Hmm. One step forward two steps back.
Very unsettled night last night struggling to get him latched on properly and now feeling quite sore again. Grrrrr.

Plus (I know I shouldn't have) but had him weighed at bf group and he's only put on 2oz since Monday despite feeding v frequently.

Sigh.

Don't lose heart IceCream, babies often put on different amounts different weeks. Not good to get them weighed too often as it just causes you to worry. As long as lots of wet and dirty nappies chances are he's doing well

I sympathise re the fussy night. Night times are often the worst as you're just tired and it's hard to see what you're doing etc. It'll get better.

Thank you. I knew I shouldn't have weighed him.

Nappies, sleep and contentment when awake all good and all feeds today have been good so am back to feeling positive.

I find he latches a lot better when he's not overtired.

Glad today has been better Ah yeah, him being tired might make him fussy. Good you've noticed that though, as time goes on you'll pick up on signs of tiredness quicker and hopefully be able to get in first before he gets too 'difficult'

How are you both doing?

If its still hurting, its possible that the tongue tie either hasn't been snipped completely, has regrown or he could have another posterior tongue tie which wasn't snipped the first time. Have you heard of Milk Matters? They can point you in the direction of a lactation consultant or specialist in tongue ties.

If its any help, I feed mostly from the right as the left side was very painful and I tended to avoid it (TT not diagnosed until three months) and my DS is and has always been off the top of the weight chart.

You are doing brilliantly!

Going fairly well thank you. Believe it or not he's now latching better to the 'bad' side than the good side .

It's definitely a learning curve for both us!

Will resist temptation to get him weighed again for a week or so.

Just to update- things are going really well now.

Still don't think latch is perfect but think it will improve as his mouth gets bigger and I'm no longer getting any pain.

He's gained loads of weight and is sleeping really well at the moment- long may it last!

I've found that if he starts 'chewing' for comfort I can take him off and put him in the sling or rock him a bit and he's quite happy with that instead.

Thanks so much for all the advice and support.

Thanks for coming back to update IceCream- that's really good to hear that things are going so well.

Brilliant news

Yes, great to hear that things are going so well.