Newborn who will latch on, but keeps pulling off: please help!

[Lunarlyte]

Hello, our DD2 was born on 19th April by ELCS: immediate skin-to-skin in theatre, immediate feeding, lovely little feeder until we hit problems yesterday ...

Basically, I put her to my left breast yesterday, where she latched on but then spat my nipple out, crying. I put her on my right breast and the same thing happened. This was a 1:30, and kept repeating. She still hadn't fed by 5pm, so I phoned midwife who recommended I use a breast pump to soften my breasts (they were getting heavier and harder by the minute). I did this, but had to give her the expressed milk in a bottle at 11pm as I was exhausted and weepy :( pumping hurt like heck! (nipples are sore and cracked, btw)

Anyway, she had a good feed this morning from both breasts (hooray!) but has just refused my left breast again. Took from the right bur now my left boob is swelling again and is harder than the right. What's going on? I can't face pumping again. Please help!!

Hi -didn't want you to go unanswered, but not sure if i'll be much help, hopefully some experts might be along soon! As your LO took from the left breast this morning, it doesn't sound like she is struggling to feed from that side due to pain. Ear ache/infection can quite often mean there is a preference for one side over the other. Have you tried feeding in different positions? I think most babies tend to have a preference for one side over the other and this can be down to a number of things such as the flow of milk or positioning. It may be that she is able to latch onto the right a bit easier if it is not as full as the left? I remember when my left boob was quite engorged, it was a nightmare trying to get DS to latch on. So maybe try a few different positions and see if that helps? Hope things get better.

You could try either expressing a small amount first to make breasts softer or trying reverse pressure softening (you'll need to google some videos). Also biological nurtaring position is a good one for babies this little means they can self latch.

Could you also get the midwife to watch a whole feed to check your latch you shouldn't be sore and cracked.

Try and avoid using a bottle at this early age as it can cause bottle preverancs. If you need to top her up either use a syring of cup. They only need really small amounts at this age.