wondering why it still hurts?!

[sprite25]

DD is now 3 weeks old, she had a tongue tie which was affecting her feeding but it was clipped when she was a week old and I thought things were better but... I still dont think she's latching on properly despite MW saying its fine. My nipples are still REALLY sore and feeding is sometimes still quite painful. DD still never seems settled after a feed even if I've offered her both breasts and she's on there for AGES! Because of tongue tie DD had to be cup fed a top up of formula and then under the advice of midwife we tried her on a bottle and have been giving her a dummy as MW said she will know difference by now but I think it has confused her as she no longer opens her mouth to latch on but tries to just suck on the end like she would a bottle or dummy. MW is visiting on Monday and dont know how I go about seeing someone else who can give more 1 to 1 support for more then 10 minutes now and again. Sorry for long post but just looking for advice or maybe someone who has gone through something similar. Do I stop giving the dummy? Could tongue tie have reattached? Can she still learn to latch properly or is it too late and BF will always hurt? Will different positioning help?

Do you have breast feeding support in your area? Around here there is a helpline and volunteers can come to your house to help you get the latch right. They are much better at helping than either midwives or health visitors IME. You might have been given a leaflet about it in hospital? Your local children's centre might also have a breastfeeding drop in or information about local services.

I was told not to give a dummy until breast feeding was well established as they can get confused and also they need to suck a lot to get supply up - and if they suck at a dummy instead then your supply isn't stimulated in the same way.

The going on for ages is normal though, tiny babies sometimes do just need to feed and feed and feed. Can you lie down to feed? Or can you make yourself really comfortable in a chair and just let her feed?

I found lansinoh cream really helpful when I had sore nipples - the baby can just carry on feeding even when you have it on.

Good luck, it does get much much easier but it can take a while to get there.

Second seeing a lactation expert in real life.

However, yes, tongue tie can reattach if you don't persist with the stretching exercises long enough. Lip tie can also cause pain on feeding; have you checked her for lip tie? Google images if you need, it's easy enough to spot.

Good luck!

Latch can definitely take a while to sort, plus it changes as they grow. They learn, you learn.
I would 100% recommend finding a bf group you feel comfortable in and keep going back until things improve.

It took me and my ds ages to figure it out but we did in the end with help. He had bottles to tide him over and it hasn't ruled out bf.

Hi sprite, well done for persevering you are doing so well. Have you checked out the breastfeeding teams/groups locally? They will often be able to show you tricks to help improve the latch, which are very difficult to explain and understand if you are not face to face. Well done again!