Breastfeeding Advice - Two Week Old Baby

[ally1986]

Hi all,

I have a 13 day old DD who I am struggling to breastfeed and it’s really starting to get me down. She was born 5 days early by forceps delivery and weighed 6lb 15oz and since birth I have struggled to breastfeed as she hasn’t been able to latch on properly. I had lots of help in the hospital (we stayed in for 3 nights) but no one managed to get her to latch on (they all had varying theories from my nipples were too flat through to her mouth is too small…).

I had a lot of milk and was able to express and feed this to her by bottle which she took well. Nipple shields were then suggested to me by one of the midwives which I tried and she eventually latched on to. Since then I’ve been using them to feed but I’m starting to doubt their efficiency. Since I’ve stopped feeding her expressed breast milk and just solely breastfed her, her weight gain has slowed down (she’s still 1.5oz off her birth weight) and her dirty nappies have slowed to about one a day. She is still doing plenty of wet nappies (at least 8 per day) though.

She has fed ok in the day (although feeds range from 30 minutes to 1.5 hours) but at night (from around 9pm to 2am) she has fed constantly which at first I put down to cluster feeding. Today has been particularly hard though, she has just not stopped feeding all day – the longest break I’ve had has been about 2 hours. It got to the point where I gave her some expressed milk via a bottle to try and fill her up and she downed 120ml! So now I’m at the point where I think I’m starving her and either the nipple shields aren’t working properly (although I can hear her swallowing and see the milk around her mouth and in the teat once she’s finished) or my milk supply isn’t enough for her?

My breasts feel completely empty (I tried expressing after her last feed but couldn’t get much out) and now I’m worrying about the night ahead and whether she’s going to have enough milk. My mind has turned to formula as I don’t want her going hungry. Does any of this sound vaguely normal and does anyone have any suggestions? Every midwife/health visitor I see has a different opinion on it and I’ve got to the point where I don’t know what to think…

Sorry for the rambling post but any advice/support is appreciated. I am desperate to breastfeed her and would ideally like to ditch the nipple shields but she still won’t latch on without them despite help from breastfeeding counsellors xx

[NameChange30]

their own call (not there )

[silkpyjamasallday]

Have her tongue checked again, dd was checked by a few nurses and midwives and the doctor at hospital and they all missed it, she broke it herself shoving a spoon into her mouth over enthusiastically when we started weaning at 6 months, a bit of blood lots of tears but all over within a few minutes. Good news about the weight gain, I think thy take a while to build your supply and get going, dd lost just over 10% of her birthweight due to jaundice, but at 10 months she is ridiculously chubby with loads of lovely rolls. You are doing so well, congratulations! It only gets easier with breastfeeding but the beginning is so difficult, but it is worth persevering imo.