Breast feeding hell. Please help.

[Freewanderer]

Long story short. Have been struggling for 8 weeks now to bf and am point of thinking of stopping. I have had to now introduce formula once or twice a day due to poor weight gain.
It’s the latch. Baby just can’t seem to do it! They all say no tie etc but feeding is always uncomfortable. It’s like my ds’ lower teeth are grating on my nipple. He’s also started making a clicking noise, which is relatively new. He makes the same noise when drinking from a bottle. We got off to a bad start due to neonatal jaundice needing treatment.
The reason I’m interested to see if anyone has an advice/ideas is that also, I have started getting weird ‘electric shock’ sensations randomly during feeds (at no particular point). I really don’t want to stop but now there are no cafes to go to (thanks to covid), I’m at loss as what to do.
Thanks for any ideas. I must say, I have no issues with ff at all. I just can see that the closeness from
Bf is quite a unique experience and I don’t want to give that up yet.

Gosh, I’ve just read that back and didn’t mean to sound so self pitying! Ridiculous! We are lucky in this country to be able to supplement or move to formula

Hey,

I know you said your baby doesn't like shields but what if you rock and feed at the same time? I had to do this till my son got used to them and they were a lifesaver. And no your not a lost cause at 8 weeks for a latch! My baby suddenly latched at 16 weeks by himself without a shield and without pain. He would also click when drinking which showed me he had a bad latch. Perhaps he just needed more time to grow and feed better. Perhaps yours is the same. Best of luck

And @freewanderer I recently had mastitis and that makes your milk taste salty and the antibiotics mess up little ones stomach for a bit so that too could be the cause of the fuss. Try to persevere for a week or two after the mastitis and antibiotics and see how you go. Not self pitying at all. I had thrush, cracked nipples, milk blebs, a bad latch and a baby who fed all day and night.. some people have it easy breastfeeding (similarly all my family too) and some have it tough. I hope things improve for you and you're happy with whatever the outcome is x

Hey sunshine, thank u.
Can I ask, how did you persevere so long? Were u in pain for 16 weeks? That’s amazing that you stuck with it. My baby seems to be getting worse and he’s now neatly 11 weeks. Still clicking and causing pain, so for my sanity I have had to substitute bottles in most of the time.x

@Freewanderer yes I was in pain. I felt too strong about breastmilk being the best thing for my baby and I couldn't express much. The shields are what helped me persevere. I'm now at 21 weeks and currently nursing my LO without any pain.

Have you tried different holds? One of my breasts is heavier and my LO struggled to latch unless in the football hold. He would always click when held cradle. Could you speak to La Leche? They are doing video calls in certain areas..

Also sometimes you need to take a break in order to heal.. I had one cut which took weeks and weeks even with the shields!

OP I'm sorry I haven't RTFT but I was told my baby didn't have a tongue tie by two midwives and a GP. I was convinced she did, though, and what jumped out at me from your OP is that there's a clicking noise which is a classic tongue-tie symptom. It was only when I got a lady from a local NHS breastfeeding support group to check that we confirmed she did have a tongue-tie, and we did have to get it snipped!

If something still doesn't feel right, get a second, third, fourth opinion!