How to wean off nipple shields

[Rosieposie9]

My baby is now 3 and a half weeks old and for the first week after she was born I couldn't get her to latch due to facial palsy she had following a difficult forceps delivery. We struggled for a week and had to give formula as she wasn't getting anything as she could not latch at all. On day 7 the facial palsy had improved considerably and I took her to the breastfeeding support clinic where they checked for tongue tie etc but still could not get her to latch as she had got used to a bottle by this point and clearly had nipple confusion. They suggested nipple shields and she instantly latched and has breastfed ever since. We ditched the formula completely after a few days of combined feeding and she is now breastfeeding with no issues, albeit with nipple shields only. I have tried a few times since to get her to latch without them and she gets frustrated and shakes her head/mouth about a bit and then cries and refuses to open her mouth.

I am hoping to try and breastfeed for at least 6 months and ideally would love to ditch the nipple shields but don't know whether I'm just creating issues that I don't need to as she is feeding well with them they're just a bit of a faff.

Any advice on how I could go about getting her to latch without them? Or do I just continue with them? I don't really know much about them as had never considered them before but do people use them long term?

Some people use them long term and it's fine, I have a friend who is bf her baby at 18 months with them. I used them till about ten weeks then managed to wean off by letting her start with the sheild on then unlatching her whipping the sheild off and putting her back on. It took about three weeks and was two steps forward one step backwards. My lo was tongue tied and wouldn't latch at all at birth and ended up being tube fed, got her to latch day 3 with sheilds, TT only picked up at week 8, lots of people checked and said she wasn't but when we saw someone actually qualified they picked it up immediately. Good luck, it's doable and I think worth it as you say they are a faff but it's not essential and nothing to beat yourself up about. It's old research that says supply can drop with shields, newer research suggests fine

I don’t have direct experience of this, but I did hear it suggested that you start a feed with the shield and then once baby is relaxed, unlatch her from the shield and try directly. Also, have a look at the advice from Kellymom:

kellymom.com/ages/newborn/nb-challenges/wean-shield/

Is there a lactation consultant/ breastfeeding support group you can see locally you?

Thank you both for your help that website is very helpful. I could go back to the breastfeeding support clinic I went to initially but they just had the same suggestion initially and that was just to keep trying without but every time I try at the moment she gets so distressed it affects the feeding even when I put them back on because she gets so worked up about it.