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Infant feeding

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

Latch is suddenly terrible at 3 weeks

2 replies

RLI1105 · 24/06/2021 14:24

Just as the title suggests!

My twins are 3 weeks old although they were born early at 35+5. My daughter spent time in the NiCU for her breathing and although I've been trying she just cannot seem to latch/suck at all. My son however just took to breastfeeding straight away. Was never painful, has put on bags of weight.... my eldest son who is 18 months never managed to breastfeed due to a bad tongue tie and a host of other problems. It was a terribly difficult time and really impacted my mental health. He thrived on formula but I was so pleased I when my younger son breastfed and it meant I could express for my daughter.

Last week I had a blocked duct and since then things have just deteriorated. We are now at the point where he just cannot get a good latch. It's agony. You can tell he's not draining the breast properly either, never seems completely satisfied. My supply is less as well as I've not been able to pump as much for my daughter.
I just feel devastated and don't understand why it's suddenly so hard. It would have been better if he just never managed.

Has anyone else had this where your baby struggles and then gets the technique back? My health visitor has been twice this week. No evidence of thrush or a tongue tie.

Will it get easier? My husband is also really struggling seeing me upset again and I can tell is just desperate for me to stop although he would never say that!

OP posts:
TroubleInSnowland · 24/06/2021 14:40

It’s been a long time since I BF but I remember when ds was a few weeks old, his latch suddenly got worse. As he’d become bigger and more wriggly, his positioning had changed. I had to concentrate on making sure his body stayed tucked into mine. I ended up using rugby ball hold. He carried on feeding until after the first year. Can you get a BFing counsellor to take a look?

RLI1105 · 26/06/2021 07:56

@TroubleInSnowland Hi! Thanks for messaging. The health visitor said sometimes when they get bigger it can throw things out of line! There have been good feeds and bad feeds the last couple of days. I'm getting treated for thrush as well just in case as I have been having a sore burning sensation after feeding as well.
It's just so hard in comparison to bottle feeding! My daughter just gets a bottle, drinks it and then that's her for 3 hours! You get to cuddle her while you're doing it and look into her eyes and talk to her. Compare that to the on and off, the pain, contorting myself to get a good position... 😭

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