Nipple / bottle confusion?

[Pennies]

Yesterday, on advice from the midwife when she saw my bleeding and cracked nipples I resorted to giving baby Pennies a bottle of expressed breat milk last night because there were tears on both sides and she wasn't latching on and the pain was immense. She now won?t latch on at the breast ? probably because she knows there?s an easier way.

Even though she was only on the bottle for just 1fl oz, so not even a full feed could this be nipple confusion? I really want to breast feed her rather than give her EBM all the time so how do I resolve this non-latching on?

I'm no expert but i had cracked nipples when i started breast feeding and tried nipple shields. These are silicone flexible things that just cover your nipples so you can still breast feed, but have something protecting your bare nipples. It doesn't exactly make it pain-free, but they definitely helped and then after a couple of days after things had had a chance to heal, I went back to normal feeding. I guess when using the shields the baby still has to work pretty hard and can still smell the breast etc, but they aren't a million miles away from a bottle teat so may work as a good compromise. You can even buy them from our local supermarket so they are quite widely available. HTH! Good luck!

Horrible to be sore like this, Pennies.....there is a view that it is not confusion that causes this behaviour, but the baby simply deciding to 'go for' the bottle because she gets an effective feed from it. The fact you are sore and cracked indicates she was not positioned in a way that gives an effective feed. Get that sorted, and things will be better all round...in the meantime, lots of skin to skin contact will lure her back to the breast.

Call one of the breastfeeding helplines, too....NCT's is 0870 444 8708

If I was you I would see a breast feeding counsellor. Not sure if your hospital or one near has one. I found that the midwifes were ok but not as good as sorting out problems as a counsellor. What she shouldve done was told you to feed from a cup or spoon not the bottle. That wouldve avoided any potential confusion. She should also have helped you with the latch to prevent the nipples from getting worse. They do get sore the first few days, lanison cream helped me and making sure the latch was ok. I also carried on feeding as I knew if I stopped due to pain I may be too frightened to start again.
Have you tried another position. My Friend could only feed lying down for the first 3 weeks until her nipples healed, she then went to a counsellor who showed her how to feed sitting up and since has had no problems. Like you she was in extreme pain and creid with every feed.
Get some good advice.