No gaping mouth and nipple feeding

[Sephy]

My 6wo ebf baby rarely opens her mouth really widely ( like all the leaflets insist she will, given time!) and as a result usually gets little more than my nipple in her mouth.

It diesnt usually hurt me, but I'm worried she may not be getting enough milk out, particularly as she's just started getting greenish poos. Too much foremilk as she's not finishing properly? She rarely has that milk drunk look.

Her weight gain has been fine, pretty fast if anything though she was only 9th centile at birth.

Any tips on getting her to open her mouth and latch better? Or what else I should do?

Tempt her mouth open more, by gently rubbing your nipple on her cheek and chin - once it is open wide enough, actually put your whole nipple, including some breast if you can. Don't be afraid of really shoving it in there - I had to do the same.

I have no advice, but my two are the same. Neither of them ever opened their mouths wide and always a very shallow latch. I fed dd1 successfully to 1 year and dd2 is 13 weeks. With Dd1 my nipples got a bit shredded at the start but we got through it, dd2 I knew to reattach if it was too sore and it's going fine.

They both have lip ties which I suspect may have something to do with it, however here in NI there don't seem to be many (any?) specialists in dealing with it. they possibly have posterior tongue tie too as I read that often occurs with lip tie. Have you tried speaking to LLL or seeing a breastfeeding counsellor? They may be able to advise on latch/positioning. The odd green poo should not be a problem and there is a growth spurt at 6 weeks which can throw things off a bit. Seek help from the pros if you are worried, but if weight gain is good and your nipples are not sore at this stage then hopefully it won't be a barrier to continuing for as long as you want to.

Thanks both - I'll keep persevering!

At my baby cafe they suggest positioning so the nipple is aimed between their eyes and then hugging then close (works for any hold). That way they have to tilt their head back and open their mouth upwards to reach the nipple. or I sometimes just shove it in

My ds was the same - never did a textbook gape until he was about 10 weeks old - but I found the "nipple flip" (aka flipple) useful to cram more boob in there.

This video is with a much older baby but it's much clearer than reading a text description . I discovered it when ds was 5 weeks old and it made for a much more comfortable latch.

I have just had my 3rd baby who is now 8 weeks old who had the same issue - tiny baby and tiny mouth plus big nipples! I live in Spain and found the midwives were a lot more 'hands on' with my boobs than in UK with my first two babies - they literally grabbed the boob, squeezed the areola both sides like you would hold a cigarette and pushed as much areola in baby's mouth as possible - this method really worked for me (takes a bit of practice) I am mixed feeding now due to low weight gain but I am really happy that I can still give baby at least half breast milk - I had to give up very early with both my first 2 because of sore, cracked nipples and mastitis. Try the cigarette hold squeezing the areola at the same angle as baby's mouth - it worked for me.

I would get somebody who knows what they are doing to check for tongue tie.

helpful article here

Small gape, greenish poo, rapid weight gain are all on the list of symptoms in that article. I never once saw the milk drunk look in ds1 who was tied.

I'm jumping in with tongue tie suggestion too- soudns just liek my DD. Then I noticed she had a lip tie, and got her diagnosed with a posterior tongue tie. She's much better at opening her mouth now- but for a while I was pulling her jaw down with a flat finger to get her to open her mouth-0 that taught her what she was meant to do.

Thanks both. I think she probably does have a lip tie, and she does have a few of those symptoms including cupping her tongue when she cries and unsettled sleeping.

How do you recommend finding someone who knows how to check? They already had a perfunctory look at the hospital when she was born so I don't think it's an obvious one if she has one.