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.

Definitely give them another call, a trained counsellor can help you with the latch.

Whereabouts in the country are you? People might know of breastfeeding clinics or similar near you.

The Breast Feeding Network (BfN) would also be able to chat to you over the phone and if you wanted, they could put you in touch with someone local to you to either ring you or come round and listen to your problem at your house.

Hi BellaBear - I fed DD2 for a whole year using nipple shields. It took her about 5 weeks to get back up to her birth weight, but she was fine after that. The MW told me to take things one feed at a time - each and every breast feed was a bonus. She would feed for longer (She might be at the breast for up to 45mins) than DD3 (no nipple shields and would feed for about 20 mins) but managed fine for a year. It's not ideal, but at the time it kept me breast feeding which I desperately wanted to do.

What worked with DD3 was getting a BFC round and having her confirm that I was doing it right.

Good luck!

Congratulations on the birth of your little boy Bellabear.

I just wanted to give some reassurance that nipple shields don't necessarily mean that your supply will suffer. DS1 was jaundiced at birth too and not feeding so a midwife gave us some shields and we were off. I bf him for 13 months with the shields. He never could latch on without them. In the first few weeks he was putting on 10-16oz so I knew he was getting something. The midwives tried to help wean us off the shields but I couldn't get the hang of it.

I did the same with DS2 to start with but managed to give the shields up at about 4 mths although he was a bit of a monkey and went through phases when he would pull so hard on the breast that he would make me very sore again so I would go back to them from time to time. He was bf until 16 mths. I think to wean him off I used to let him latch on with the shield and then slip it off part way through the feed when he loosen his latch for a moment.

With regard to taking them out, I used to have bowl of sterilising fluid with the shields in all day, taking them out as I needed them. Whilst I was sterilising the shields I also had a tiny plastic pot that I used to sterilise in the same bowl of solution and I used to keep a couple of sterilised shields in that when I was out and about. I didn't feel particularly restricted when going out although it did make a bit of extra work and there was always the fear that I would forget them and DS would not be able to feed. A small price to pay for me for being able to bf though.

If you could do without them then obviously it is much better but there is no hurry to get rid of them if your DS is gaining weight, weeing and pooing. It is better to bf with them than give up completely and it sounds like you are doing a really great job to have got over the problems of the first week. It will get easier. Good luck!

Hi BellaBear
I have been using Avent nipple shields for 16 weeks now. I did try to wean him off about 3 weeks ago, but this coincided with me getting thrush, which was so painful that I am back to using them again!
I take my DS to get weighed every couple of weeks, so i can keep an eye on things and make sure he's gaining weight, and so far its been ok, and my supply seems fine.
I actually don't find its any more bother having to remember to take the shields out with me than having to remember that I need to re-stock the nappy supplies! I make up a big steriliser full of milton in the morning, and then put some of this water into a small water tight pot which i then carry around all day with all the other stuff i need.
I know that using nipple shields is not ideal, but with them i've managed 16 weeks of exclusive breast feeding - without them i'd have managed about a week...
Good luck with your baby!

thanks v much for all replies

have been on internet ban as was getting a bit silly over all the info

still on nipple shields, have been trying him without at the start of each feed.

he has regained birth weight

hv very pleased with his progress and says if he needs nipple shields then so be it

i need lots of sleep

thanks again, really appreciate stories of others' experiences

BellaBear - that's great news about the weight gain. Glad your HV is supportive of the shields, mine was too. Hope you get some sleep!

I used shields from about 10 days in to 6 months with ds, every single feed. Never had any problem with supply and he was on the 75th centile from 5 weeks onwards (born on 50th centile). I wouldn't worry about using them, it doesn't matter if he never comes off them ime