Some questions on nipple shields

[BellaBear]

Some back story:
My son was born eight days ago and would not feed from me.

After two days we were visited by a mw who realised he wasn't getting anything and diagnosed jaundice. She got me expressing and we fed him colustrum from a bottle, whcih he took very readily. She advised feeding at least every three hours - he needed plenty of liquid to get rid of the jaundice.

After another two days, and deep in my baby blues day (I was crying all over the place, about him being ill and not being able to feed him) a lovely lovely mw suggested using nipple shilds which hemeant he then fed from me, initially for about ten minutes, before I would express and bottle feed him EBM.

Over the next three days we increased the feeding from me and kept expressing, to ensure he had enough liquid to help him recover from jaundice.

Yesterday the mw advised that he had recovered from the jaundice sufficiently that we could now let him dictate when he would feed (we had on most occasions had to wake him three hourly to feed him).

Last night we had a go at not expressing - he still seems to have plenty of dirty and heavy nappies and is sleeping a waking between two and four hourly.

I feel we have had three main problems this week:

1. The jaundice - he seems to have recovered.

2. The bottle feeding - I stopped last night and he is still sleeping, alert, weeing and pooing

3. The nipple shields. I am using avent silicone shields. He will still not suck directly from my breast and it is obviously good that he is getting breast milk, but I am scared. I am scared that it will limit my supply (but I don't want to express milk and then force it down him, or not and have painfully engorged breasts). I am scared that the sterilisation process will limit my ability to go out and bf while out of the house (tips welcome). I am scared that he will not stop using the shields.

I realise we have come a long way in the last week (jaundice non-feeding baby to pink feeding via shields baby) and I am very happy about that.

THank you for reading this, any advice, experiences very very welcome.

bella, i used shields with both my dd's initially. Just do whatever it takes to get him latched.. ALWAYS tried to get him latched without the shields - if unsuccessfull use it. Then throughout the feed try to slip the shield away and get him to latch without.

I managed to wean both dd's by about 12 weeks, it was hard going but we done it and you will too with the support from mumsnet

Re. the sterilisation.. i used to take sterile shields with me everywhere in a dummy holder.

thank you for replying. each feed he is getting about 15-30 mins feeding. is that enough?
my breasts already feel a lot less full (and less painful) than two days ago. i'm worried about losing supply, should i be?

bump?

You need one of the breast feeding gurus. Bumping for you. Good luck you can and will do it.

I know nothing about nipple shields so I'm afraid I can;t help, have you tried calling one of the bf helplines?
They are staffed by volunteers and will know exactly what theyre talking about so if you give one a call you'll get great advice.
The numbers are on my profile if you need them.
I'll try and keep this bumped so the mroe knowledgeable MNers see it too.

thank you

VS - which would you suggest is best number? I could call local nct bfc

Any of them will be able to help, I'd try NCT first myself, and if you get no joy (they may be busy) then try the otehrs.

La Leche League are pretty darn good too from what I've heard.

Well done for getting this far!

I belive shields can affect supply but can be a Godsend if your nipples are sore. If you want to stop using them then I'd get a BF counsellor to give you some help getting baby latched on correctly.

My sister fed with shields for months with her first baby but it did make things a bit awkward when feeding out & about.

hi

i have an inverted nipple and used a sheild. I was advised that it would affect my supply but at one stage, my supply was so good that I had to double up on my breast pads.

I'm sorry you've had such a difficult week, bella. But I'm glad he's recovering from the jaundice.

As far as nipple shields go, I had a terrible start with ds1, ended up with cracks etc. Started using nipple shields, and they were the only things that meant I could keep bfeeding. Because of that, I only felt confident feeding with shields, and couldn't bring myself to try without for many months. I wouldn't advise doing this - if for no other reason than it makes discrete public bfeeding impossible! But as far as sterilising goes, you can get little sterilisable pots for going out if you need. In my case, it clearly did not affect ds1's growth in any way, but I realise that's anecdotal. There is some concern that shields affect their ability to get hindmilk, but if a) you try and get off them and b) he's growing fine, I don't think you need to worry.

I used shields for a couple of days with ds2, but found it easy to get off them. First I tried latching him on so my (normally flat) nipples got to the right shape, then unlatched him, took off the shield and re-latched. Then progressed to trying to latch without a shield, and only put one off if he failed to latch without it, if that makes sense.

I don't blame you for being scared, you've done tremendously well under difficult circumstances. There's no reason you can't get off the shields, it's very early days yet.

15-30min per feed - every baby is different, and will feed for different lengths of time, but that sounds ok to me. Your breasts might be feeling less full because a) you've stopped expressing and b) your initial engorgement might be settling anyway at this stage.

Heh heh! x-posts Liath (I'm the sister she's talking about!)

LOL at "clearly didn't affect ds1's growth in any way".

Understatement !

bellabear.

i'm so sorry you have been having a few problems. my first dd was jaundice but i did manage to breastfeed her for a year. i'm sorry i have never used shields so am unable to offer any advice there. i can understand why you're concerned about the milk drying up, but the only way to keep the supply "going"
is to carry on b/f or expressing. it's really early days for both of you, but keep at it, (if you can) x sounds like you're doing a fantastic job.

Quite

If you're worried about how much he's getting, remember to look at his nappies - if he's still peeing and pooing as much as before, and the poos are still nice and yellow, he's getting his milk.

The same thing happened with us - DS was jaundiced, wasn't nursing properly and I was very

You can use nipple shields for as long as you need too -it took DS 5 months to realise he could breastfeed without them. 5 very long months but he continued breastfeeding until he was 18 months old.

Don't give up! Congrats on the birth of your DS & I am glad to hear he is much better now.

thank you v much for replies, i really appreciate it

nct bfc said i can express after feeding and not feed him the ebm if it makes me happier, which i think it might, a bit.

Bellabear, congratulations on your son and well done for getting through the first 8 days (they are definitely the hardest).

Some of my experiences were similar to yours - I had a jaundiced baby who couldn't latch on, a hellish first few days and I ended up having to use nipple shields for quite some time.

First thing I would say is to try and get decent one-to-one advice from a qualified breastfeeding counsellor as soon as possible. They should be able to help you sort out the latch. Get them to check for tongue-tie as this often goes unnoticed but can seriously affect the baby's ability to latch on.

I would second determination's advice to keep trying to get a latch without the shields, but use them if this doesn't work. I personally found Medela shields much better than Avent. I was given these by the breastfeeding advisor at my hospital but you can buy them online - they come in two sizes and were much easier to use.

I don't know much about how using shields affects supply, but I think it is harder for the baby to get as much milk with the shield, so you will probably need to feed longer and more frequently to keep him satisfied. I would try not to worry about supply as long as he is producing good heavy nappies and gaining weight. This is the best indicator, not how your breasts feel.

There are lots of experts on here who I'm sure will be along with advice soon. Best of luck.

Hi Bella

Your experience sounds very similar to the one I had with my DD who was born 12 weeks ago. I found that nipple shields were useful for getting my confidence up that she could feed from me.

Once I was sure that she was recovered from jaundice and putting on weight i made the decision to stop using the shields, spent ages making sure my positioning was correct (the la Leche League and my HV were a great help) and spent the next few days feeding her little and often. It worked well and she became accustomed to my nipples and could breastfeed naturally.

Hang on in there, you are doing really well - breastfeeding is very difficult at times and i struggled at first but 12 weeks later my DD and I are doing great and finally enjoying it.

Have they said they can send anyone round to help you with the latch Bella???

I got ds off them at about 10 days almost by accident (also jaundiced, sleepy wodulnlt latch properly). Hadn't taken them upstairs ready for a night feed, was too tired to btoher to fetch them and he latched on. diduse them for alternate feeds next day then stopped. Pick a moment when you are both relaxed , perhaps mid way through a feed, take a break and see if he will, if not nothing lost. If you need to go out , find a small sealed plastic container for them.

Feeding more frequently (at least 3 hourly) will boost supply, and, if you can, spending the day in bed with him just feeding as and when he shows the slightest interest and snoozing.

bellabear so glad to hear things are better (i saw your original thread). i think you need some face to face support to make sure your baby is getting milk effectively and to boost your confidence. have you tried feeding in the bath?

i will ring nct bfc tomorrow morning

i'm also going to give him an ebm top-up after this feed (step backwards but will be better than this I think)

Have you tried using a pump to get your nipples out before trying to latch without the shield? Or Nipple Formers?