Painful breast feeding

[amymarietucker]

My son is 6wks old and has been feeding fine on the right breast, had a few problems with the left breast such as struggling to Lachlan when it's full or coming off easier than the right side but now I am experiencing severe pain when I feed from the left! It's not mastitis (had that already) I think it's a latching problem but cannot overcome it. I don't think he is opening his mouth wide enough! He opens fine on the right side. He does have a dummy but doesn't like to use it much and he does have one bottle of expressed milk at night so daddy can feed him, been doing all this for a couple of weeks or more but this pain has only been for the last 3-4 days, worse today. Any ideas or help please???

Have you had him checked for tongue and/or lip tie? Not sure if that would apply to one side only but it's the cause of latching problems with me (upper lip tie here)...

Has he been checked for tongue tie and upper lip tie? It is worth finding your local la lecjhe league and asking for advice from them, as many health visitors are less than amazing at finding ties!

Also Have you tried different feeding positions? I often get sore on one side in one feeding position, so have to use a different one.

Ha, great x post there!! Upper lip and posterior tongue tie here too notone, neither identified until she was over a year so nothing can be done now u less we go private...

Ha! I think just a lip tie here. Seeing a lactation consultant on the 12th and he'll be 7 weeks - praying she can divide it or refer to someone who can pronto as on the verge of giving up bf now, his latch is so poor. He's better with nipple shields as it's not so easy to slip off all the time but it's not ideal. I believe his poor latch is also the reason for his colic.

Hi all thanks for replies, your he does have tongue tie but didn't think it would cause problems on one side only. We see the paediatrician on the 25th. It hurt so much last night that I am considering giving up all together or just going to expressing like I had to with my first son (expressed and bottle fed him for 1st four months as had latching problems to left side that time and only managed a couple of weeks breast feeding but I did get him back on the breast at 4 mths old until he was 11mths)

Have you tried nipple shields? I'm also expressing and bottle feeding (so I'm very encouraged you were able to go back to bf) but I'm also doing feeds with a shield as it stops him slipping off quite so much and is a bit easier than expressing. I'm doing a mixture though as I'm not convinced he's getting enough from me. I think his poor latching and feeding has affected my supply so I'm hoping regular expressing will build it back up. It's a pain though. Endless sterilising!

Tt can cause probs on just one side, sometimes you can see this when you look at how the restriction affects the tongue. Although it is also very possible it's a positioning problem so worth seeing a bfc or similar to see if they can help get you comfortable whilst you wait for your snip.

Not tried shields but I have some somewhere, used them for a couple of days when getting first son back on breast. It's is such a pain expressing and feeding and sterilising then repeating, especially when hubby at work or at night. Might give the shields a try and then if that doesn't work I might have to express for a few days till soreness on left goes away. Let's try and keep at tho! Did try other positions when he was first born and I couldn't get comfy with them but will look up local bfc thanks.