Any tips on how to encourage baby to open mouth wider?

[EdieMcredie]

She is 6 weeks and BFing going very well apart from the fact that she doesn't open mouth wide enough resulting in some soreness.

Hiya, Well done so far. Definitely a good plan to encourage her to open wider to stop it being sore. Sounds crazy but I used to say "big wide" when DD was 4 days old and being cup fed (cos we'd shredded my nipple) and she somehow seemed to know what I meant - well maybe she did, or maybe the fact I didn't put the cup to her lip or later bring her to the breast until she had opened up more sharpened her attention! There's quite a good description of how to encourage a wider mouth here. Also have a vague memory of hearing that there's something you can do by squeezing their hand gently between thumb and forefinger but can find no reference to it anywhere which makes me think maybe I dreamt it or got it confused with stopping yourself clenching your jaw in labour. Best of luck with sorting it out anyway. It was so lovely for me and DD when we finally sussed it and it stopped hurting!

Just thought of something else I was told that helped: 'wide enough' is as wide as she opens her mouth when she's yawning or yelling cos she's mad about something.

When I had initial problems with BF my HV told me to say "open wide" and also to make faces at the baby with your mouth wide open! sounds mad but it did work...also when she was latched on, pull her chin down to open her mouth wider...

HTH

Thanks everyone! Yes I have heard that saying something to them helps too. Sweet!

She doesn't open it for BFing as much as she does through a yawn or cry.

Ill try all the above.

Also, depending on how you latch her on, I find it helps to sort of make sure my LO's bottom lip touches first. Then, if you've got that low enough, you can sort of drag that more open with your boob as the top of her mouth goes to engage. Not sure I've described that in a way that makes any sense!

I'm gonna give all those a try since I've got a nibbler too but I was always advised to stroke downwards with your nipple a few times from nose tip (theirs obviously ) to their bottom lip and also to stroke with nipple along bottom lip from side to side. Holding them more loosely (once they have a bit of neck control) also seems to help - they tip their head back more... That and wait wait wait a little bit longer has often worked for me

Monkeybird

having problems with this too i think, so just resurrecting this thread, and wondering.... if you are trying to wait for wide mouth, do you find your lo gets upset and you have to reset and start again? does anyone latch them on if crying at nipple? just wondering cos mouth is then wide open but i don't do it cos it goes against my instincts. thank you #9and thanks op i have somewhere to start !)

Well my DD never really did the wide open mouth thing when she was a newborn so instead of waiting for her to widen her mouth, I made my boob smaller instead! I squished my boob with one hand that was a C shape and "flattened" the boob, like you were holding a hamburger. That seemed to really help her to latch on and then when she was firmly on, I let go.