Latch advice needed

[Lopistrikke]

My seven week old son has what I think is a shallow latch. After feeds my nipples are lipstick shaped and now they are staying that way between feeds.

I've spent days looking at videos on how to latch correctly and tried various positions. He is reluctant to open his mouth wide enough for starters- he can do it but he chooses not to. When I do get enough boob in his mouth he spits it out and immediately sucks the nipple in, causing pain.

Any ideas? I'm not in the uk so no lll near me :( I don't think it's tongue tie - the tongue seems to be positioned and moving normally. He does have a small mouth and a scarily powerful suck (the docs in hospital commented on it.)

I'm getting to the point where I'm in tears feeding and becoming repelled by when he's close and rooting :(

This might sound a bit strange but have you tried not supporting his head when you offer him your boob. If his head is too supported it is tricky to open his mouth as wide as he needs to lift his chin. Rest your hand on his shoulders.

It might seem strange but I found it helped.

Ok, I tried it. He does open his mouth wider but then we are back to the spitting out the nipple and sucking it back over clenched gums. :(

Have you discovered the kellymom.com site? Lots of really good advice there.

My suggestion (but it's bloody hard work at first) is to unlatch if he's shallow and keep doing so until he does it properly. He will cry. You will cry. But once he gets it, life will be much better. I had to get my husband to help me latch on both babies properly (he had a better view!) in the early weeks and he got very good at it.

Yeah I've been breaking the latch every single time and positioning him back on. He gets really frantic and starts a really odd high pitched wail and thrashed around.

He will latch correctly, he just then spits it out and mangles the nipple. I'm feeling a bit emotionally fragile and I don't think I can continue with it like this. Every feed, and there are hours of them in a day because he never bloody stops, is agony. It's awful.

Kellymom is a great site isn't it? So much good non judgemental info.

Op I feel for you. What position are you feeding in? I found 'laid back breastfeeding' or lying down doing it forced my baby to have to almost get hold of the breast with his mouth so he had to put more in (if that makes any sense) and was much easier than a cradle position. Apologies if you've already tried all that though.

It's so hard establishing breast feeding - way harder than I ever imagined. Be very kind to yourself.

Tried the cradle, cross cradle, sitting up, sitting back, lying down on side etc. Gah...it's so frustrating!

The nipple and breast is so are and bruised now that I think anything will hurt :(

I've got inch long blood blisters all over the areolas where he's bitten me.

I may just give up and bottle feed - thanks for your kind words, I'm not very good at being nice to myself!

Ouch that sounds awful. Just do whatever you think is right. Babies just need their mums and it doesn't matter to them if your holding a boob or a bottle. Xx