Meet the Other Phone. A phone that grows with your child.

Meet the Other Phone.
A phone that grows with your child.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

Infant feeding

Get advice and support with infant feeding from other users here.

I just can't seem to get the latch right

4 replies

naturelover · 27/10/2007 09:47

DD is two months old, and bf has been tricky all along for a variety of reasons (jaundice, blocked nose, thrush). I was treating the thrush and it's definitely better (DD no longer has white patches in mouth) however feeding is still painful. I was attributing all the pain to thrush but actually the latch was poor. I saw a bf counsellor who advised on latch but I can't seem to get the hang of it at all, and I still have pain during about half of all feeds. DH is running out of patience with me because it's getting me down but I refuse to give up.

I'm lining up nose to nipple to make her open really wide and tilt her head back but when I try to nudge the nipple into the roof of her mouth, nine times out of ten she closes her mouth around just the nipple as she latches on. Ouch! She's long and heavy (thriving on breastmilk!) which makes cradle hold awkward unless I'm on a sofa where at least I'm not scared of dropping her onto the floor. My arms and back are tired.

I've started other threads recently about this (and her fussing at the breast - which has improved) and had useful tips on skin-to-skin, feeding lying down etc, but to be honest when lying down I can only see her from above and it's hard to know how wide open her mouth is.

I'm not sure anyone will be able to give any advice but if any of you have had similar experiences I'd find it helpful to hear from you.

OP posts:
beautifuldays · 27/10/2007 09:57

are you making dure that she is in a stright line when you are trying to latch her on - ie her head is in line with her bum, not higher up - that was the problem i had and making sure she was in a straight line did the trick.

can you go back and see the bf counsellor? or maybe try ringing nct/lll or going along to a breastfeeding group or something. it is hard to advise on positioning over the web!

you sound like you are doing brilliantly tho, well done for keeping going

Miaou · 27/10/2007 10:01

I'm currently b/fing ds2, my fourth child, and this is the first time I have not had pain when feeding - seriously! My latch has always been wrong previously! I will suggest what worked for me - I was holding ds (and previous babies ) too far over - ie I was getting his head comfy in the crook of my arm, when in fact he needed to be nearer the centre of my body (does that make sense?) - that way his head was tipped further back which meant that as he sucked the nipple was automatically drawn up against the palate. To help support him I used a v shaped pillow for a bit but now I've got used to holding him in the right position I can manage without. hth!

fingerwoman · 27/10/2007 12:44

naturelover, has she been checked for tongue tie?

naturelover · 27/10/2007 14:04

Yes she has, all fine.
I thought of that, because as a baby I had tongue-tie.

OP posts:
New posts on this thread. Refresh page