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Infant feeding

Get advice and support with infant feeding from other users here.

Night time comforting starting to hurt nipples and cause frustration

5 replies

PrincessChick · 14/01/2014 23:04

My 7mo DD is ebf. This has been going very well and still is, mostly. I feed her to sleep and we co sleep. She won't go to sleep without the boob. I've tried the ncss and various other gentle approaches but she just gets upset and is very wilful. I'm not good with the crying and especially not at bedtime when I'm tired. We've chosen the path of least resistance, have read various things, such as Isis and so pretty much ok with feeding to sleep / co sleeping. Usually she sleeps next to me from 8ish and I read / mn / chill out / drink tea. I usually really enjoy bedtimes. The problem we have now is that her two top teeth are through and when she's going to sleep and finished feeding, she sort of comfort sucks, and her teeth scrape my nipple. I don't get this sensation when she's feeding properly (I can tell the difference by the noise and the intensity of the suck). This is really, really hurting and leaving marks. I've had to take her off tonight as it was just too painful. She cried a lot and started rooting / pulling up on me / grabbing at me. We tried the pantley pull off again, for good measure, and that didn't work at all. DH and I ended up having an argument. She's now wide awake downstairs playing with him and I can hear that she's exhausted but there's lots of boisterous activity going on. I just needed a break, this will have consequences tomorrow though. Bedtimes are getting more fraught and I feel tired, angry and frustrated and this will lead into a vicious cycle. Tbh, I'm dreading them coming back upstairs too now. We've tried to make it all relaxing, have a good routine and she's generally a very happy girl. But I won't have her hurting me or causing bigger problems such as cracked nipples (I had a cracked nipple at 2 weeks and am not prepared to go back there!)

Feel at my wits end tonight. What can I do? Something has to change as this isn't working for any of us Sad

OP posts:
MistressofPemberley · 15/01/2014 18:21

I coslept with dd from birth and EBF. It got to a point recently where she was feeding 7 or more times a night and none of us were getting any sleep.
In the end I couldn't take it anymore and I moved her into her own room. It's been really hard to do it but in just a few nights she's sleeping in four plus hourly stretches which is unheard of. We haven't done CC; just lots of cuddles and resettles until she's asleep. I never thought I'd get her out of our bed, but it was time for us.

MuddyWellyNelly · 15/01/2014 18:22

Princess :(. Obviously I have no words of wisdom, but I accidentally clicked on unanswered threads so decided to bump this for you.

Hope everything settled down last night. Ignoramus and maybe unrelevant question, just so I can pretend I am helping. Have you started weaning her?

In the absence of practical help, have some Wine.

MuddyWellyNelly · 15/01/2014 18:22

Ha! And in the 2 minutes, someone answered!

PrincessChick · 15/01/2014 20:45

Thank you mistress. Good to hear that there is some hope for us yet! It's just hard as we actually quite like having her in with us as it's worked well all round and she doesn't wake too much (normally). We are decorating her room with a view to getting the cot back up and getting her to take her naps in there. Saying that after late night playtime, she slept really well and didn't do any more scraping. It's the scraping and biting I just can't tolerate - especially late at night!There has been a lot of drool and gnawing today plus lots of new activity and clinging. So I think it's teeth and development time. Finger crossed no bad boob etiquette so far tonight.

Nelly xxx :) xxx Thanks

OP posts:
StuckOnARollercoaster · 16/01/2014 22:15

You've not mentioned but have you tried a dummy? I never realised they weren't recommended when breastfeeding but I used one with my DD from about 2-3 weeks. I can tell when she's no longer actively feeding and just doing that comfort sucking action so I will wriggle the dummy in and pull my nipple out. Maybe worth a try?

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