Tips for latching on...

[countrywalkergirl]

My son is nearly 5 weeks old...he is ebf and has been consistently putting weight on. We are having problems with the latch though and i have very sore nipples...he is obviously grazing them as he sucks and this has caused some big sore cracks. I am perservering with feeding as i really want it to work but find it especially difficult in the middle of the night when all i want is to get the feed done and get back to sleep and so put up with the pain.

He makes funny noises when he is sucking and has started pulling away from the boob sometimes. He suffers from hiccups very frequently too and is very windy - dont think the bad attachment is helping much with the amount of air he is taking in. I have seen a breast feeding advisor who explained and showed me what a good attachment looked like...felt completely different and not sore at all. Problem is that i dont seem to be able to do it on my own....i cant seem to get my boy to tip his head back no matter how much i tickle his nose/lip. He opens wide but i seem to be getting the wrong angle and it ends up with him not getting a big mouthful of breast and just being on the nipple.

Has anyone got any tips or is this something that will just click? I am fed up being sore....this breast feeding is so much harder than i thought it would be!

Hi, yes it can be hard, but remember you are doing great :)
Are you struggling to hold him up to the breast at all while he latches on? If so, a widgy support pillow can be helpful to support the weight of the baby while you focus on getting the latch right.

Is he too far around you, ie his head too close to your armpit? If you try moving his bottom away a little from the side you are feeding from, he will have to tip back a bit more to latch on.

Has he been checked for tongue tie? Both mine had it, and I found that they latched on ok, but then immediately slipped down a bit, which was resolved once clipped. If it doesn't feel right, you need to take him off and relatch, you may need to keep doing this till he gets it right as he will now be in the habit of doing it the way he does.

I would suggest you get the bf adviser back to help you, or go along to a babycafe. You will get the best advice from someone seeing you in action, who can show you exactly what is going wrong and how to correct it.
Good luck!

Congrats on your new DS :) Did the BF advisor mention anything about biological nurturing? Sometimes it can just take a bit of time to relax and take the pressure off.

There are no right or wrong positions, just what is comfortable for you and your baby, but there are some ideas to try here.

Some mothers find taking a bath together can help, make sure there's someone else around to help out if you need it though.

If you are still having problems then yes, it is worth getting him checked for tongue tie.

Thanks for the advice.... i think i do need to see someone again and get them to sit with me until i get it right! He has been checked for tongue tie and is fine. My DS is getting fed up of being latched and then unlatched....sometimes easier to just take the pain but i know i shouldnt do that! I feel so frustrated as i know it is something simple but we just dont seem to be able to get it right.

Thanks again for your thoughts...we will keep on trying!

Remember tiny little adjustments can make a big difference to latch.

Baby's ear, shoulder and hip should all be in line with each other and his head should be positioned so your nipple points directlytowards the back of his skull

It might be worth getting a second opinion on the tongue tie. My DS didn't seem to be able to stay on - it turned out that he had a posterior tongue tie which meant that he couldn't move his tongue to the roof of his mouth. In turn this meant that when he had the nipple in his mouth he had to close his jaw in order to push the nipple up - and in doing so slipped down/didn't get enough in (makes sense if you put your finger in your mouth and try it!!). I ended up frequently relatching him/with misshapen nipples.

Everyone I saw initially said that the latch looked fine as positioning was good, mouth open wide etc but after reading various threads on here I was thinking all was not quite right and I found a good BFC that she diagnosed the problem. One snip later and my nipples stopped being deformed and he started latching on properly without needing to be taken on/off all the time. There's a useful list of symptoms here which may give you more of an idea of whether it might be good to get him checked again.

I think it would be a good idea for you to spend time with a specialist on this as I think it is probably something that needs a person to watch you and make tweaks, and help you practise latching him on and off until you've got it.

In the meantime, I can recommend biological nurturing positions and baths (both worked with me with DS throughout our early feeding relationship whenever we were having a difficult time). If you are having difficulty feeding, you can be stressed and tense without realising it and these two things help you and your baby relax together and reconnect and can often help a lot with feeding. That might be worth a try tonight or at least until you can get to see somebody who can sit with you.

Definitely worth exploring the tongue tie issue again just to get a second or third opinion.

Did he have a ventouse or forceps delivery? Some babies with ventouse or forceps delivery can have some discomfort or pain around their neck and head area so if this was the case for your DS and you think it is that he can't tip his head back rather than just being a bit lazy sometimes then you might want to explore that with a breastfeeding counsellor.

OH he has lots of those symptoms for tongue tie....I will get that checked again. He was delivered by forceps and was pretty bashed up when he eventually got hauled out....it was all quite traumatic for us all. The side that he really chews on is the side where he had a big bump on his head.

We have perservered last night with a mixture of different positions...fingers crossed we can get this sorted....many thanks for your thoughts....very helpful.

I agree that getting a breastfeeding supporter/counsellor/knowledgable person to observe and advice would be your best bet.

In the meantime, when you line him up, have him so his nose is level with your nipple so that he has to tip his head back to get his mouth to your nipple, and make sure you're not holding the back of his head. If you hold the back of someone's head, they instinctively tick their chin in and thrust their head forward - the opposite of what you'd like him to do! Try cupping the back of your partners head - I he'd he brings his chin down and head forward!

I hope things improve for you. Your local children's centre will probably know how you can find a breastfeeding supporter :)

Posterior TT is notoriously hard to spot so if repositioning isn't helping then it's worth getting a second (or third or fourth) opinion.

There's a list of LLL groups here, they'll be able to help you out and point you in the direction of someone that can help with TT if that's what it is.

If he was delivered with forceps, he might be experiencing some pain/stiffness - I've heard great things about cranial osteopaths (find one experienced in baby treatments) releasing birth tension in newborns. If you're anywhere near London the Osteopathic Centre for Children will see any baby and ask for a donation, but it's entirely discretionary. I've not been there myself but have friends who've raved.