My 6 day old baby breastfed ok for the first 5 days (his latch was a bit shallow and he slept on the boob a lot and had to be constantly chivvied to keep sucking) but as of yesterday morning he has flatly refused to latch on. My nipples are even when erect very big for his mouth and my breasts are quite large and getting him on is a struggle. He now cries and screams if I attempt to get him to latch and will sit with the nipple at or just in his mouth but not latch. As he’s slightly jaundiced and also it’s so hot just persevering isn’t an option as he already got himself quite dehydrated by yesterday afternoon and the Midwife saw him. I have no problem pumping as I have a lot of milk and feeding with a bottle, and have added bit of formula but how am I going to get him back to the breast if he needs to be fed so regularly. I can’t leave him hungry and screaming refusing to latch and if it goes on it gets dangerous. So I’m “taking the edge off” with a bit of expressed milk in a bottle and then trying him on both breasts. This means he doesn’t scream at them like when he’s hungry but he still just sits with the nipple next to his mouth or squirms and spits it out. I want to keep him trying but he’s going to have no idea how to latch if he keeps feeding from the bottle. Would breast shields help or hinder here? I feel if he were a bit older and stronger he’s take the nipple but it’s just too big/too much hard work for him at this moment. I have tried expressing first to soften the breast, trickling some in his mouth from the nipple first, skin to skin all last night etc, still won’t latch today.