Trouble with latch and sore nipples at SIX MONTHS!

[susanmt]

My dd2 is 6.5 months old. She was exclusively bf to 23 weeks and has always been a great feeder, she took to it very easily and I've fed her totally uneventfully until the last few days. All of a sudden she seems to have got lazy! She is nipple sucking, not taking enough areola into her mouth, coming off a lot and mucking around. I can't get her to open her mouth wide enough to get a good mouthful!

I think it might be that we all have terrible colds and it could be she has a sore throat as dd1 (4) is complaining of that. Would this be affecting her feeding? She is pretty bunged up nasally, I've been using olbas oil on a hanky in her cot and propped the cot up at one end and we have a humidifier on the radiator in our room (she is still in with us).

How can I encourage her to feed properly again? My nipples are getting a bit sore!!! I'm not ready to give up anything like yet, I fed dd1 to 13 months and ds to 15 months and we are planning to go travelling next year when dd2 is 16 months so I hope to feed her while we are away - so stopping now is not an option.

TIA for any advice!

No advice apart from the monotonous stuff about taking off and latching on again until she gets it right, but lots of sympathy, I still had bad days at 6 months. By the time I had to stop at 7 months to go back to work I felt we finally had the hang of the damn thing!

If it's the cold that's bothering her, then I think you can get some sort of saline drops that you drip into each nostril just before the feed. They make the baby sneeze and clear her nose, so it should be less of a struggle for her to breathe while suckling.

Alternatively it could be teething and she needs a good chew on a teether occasionally during or before a feed. It could also be that you have become a little complacent about positioning - that's what happened to me, but you seem to be very aware, so doesn't seem likely.

Sorry I don't have any advice but if she is stuffed up then a bit of breastmilk squirted up her nostrils works wonders!

Thanks folks
I'll take aim at the nostrils at her next feed!!

Hi susan! Its weird isn't it when you have to go back to basics after such a long time....I got my first bout of mastitis last week and I thought, how can this be - he's 6 MONTHS ffs!
Does she seem keen to feed or is she getting very distractible? Maybe she is ready to drop a feed?
Ds2 often seems not very interested and will 'play' with my nipple, coming off repeatedly. Other times he seems keener. Sorry, not much practical advice, just wondered if maybe it might help to concentrate on a few quiet feed times and if she's playing around/not latching properly, just call a halt to the feed for a while.

I have great sympathy for you, I was thinking of starting this thread myself!

DD is 7 mths and I'm having the same problem for the last 3/4 weeks. Sometimes I feel like she's trying to suck my nipple off, and other times she just goes off and on so much I get really sore. I find I've managed to improve it a bit by really making sure she is on properly (she keeps taking only the nipple) If I can push enough into her mouth, the milk comes down quicker and she doesn't suck so hard or mess about so much.

However there are times when she just seems to mess about, and be more interested in everything around her than in the milk. I'm trying to only feed her when she really indicates she wants it, but today that meant she had milk at 1030 and didn't have anymore til 3, which seems too long!?

This all new to me as DSs were mixed fed by this age, DD refuses to touch a bottle.

Not really any advice I'm afraid! But at least you know you are not alone.

Mine too!! He's 28w, started solids last week, has 2 teeth and is just gnawing on my nipples ... oh, and add a tongue-tie to that list. Each time I take my DS off and try to put him on properly he just gets too mad to feed! Think he's trying to cut back on feeds too and goes on better when really hungry rather than just for a snack. Sorry, no real advice but just sympathy!