Please help me carry on!

[SpannerPants]

DS is 11 months old and has 6 teeth, 4 upper and 2 lower. He's teething at the moment and has changed his latch on the left side, with the result that his top teeth rest on my areola and have broken the skin. This is very sore. The right side is fine, which is odd as all of or feeding problems have always been on the right before!

I've tried different positions, trying to get him to open his mouth wider (Difficult!) and lots of lansinoh. My next step is going to be trying a nipple shield but he refused that last time. Even expressing is making me cry with pain!

I don't want to have to stop breastfeeding yet. Is there anything else I can try?! Thank you.

I used to put dentinox on my ds's gums before feeds to try and help relieve his pain.

Is DS showing any other teething signs, and how long for?

you could also (though not sure how well advised it would be) feed from one side for a few days and express from the the left whilst he's teething to give yourself a bit of a break.

Not to pee on TMC's parade but another option is to cut out anaesthetic gels (teething gels) as they may be exacerbating the latch problem - if he can't feel what his tongue/mouth is doing he may not be aware it's not feeling right and carry on regardless. If he is in pain then an analgesic like calpol/neurofen may be better if given 20-30 mins before a feed is likely.

If you have open sores then 'moist wound healing' dressings may be a good bet to get healing quickly (WMH heals twice as fast as air healing and without scabs).

Also 'deep latch technique' may help you to get him on deeper (also known as 'the flipple' or 'exaggerated attachment').

I had this and expressed for 36 hrs or so from one side to let it heal, bm rubbed in and wet wound healing. It was temporary and went back to not hurting at all once he'd got the hang of the new teeth.

I know you said you tried different positions but I needed the teeth to not rub on the same bit so I got him to lie across me (like we were making a cross) so the teeth were East and West rather than North and South, iyswim.