Breastfeeding - only latches for a couple of sucks

[Parks789]

Hi All

Would be very grateful for any breastfeeding advice! My daughter is 1 month old and I've had to bottle feed her since birth (which wasn't the plan). I started bottle feeding with formula because it took several days for my milk to come in so she needed to be fed somehow. I'm now topping up the formula with breast milk (expressed) as much as possible.

I've had issues with low supply which I'm working on increasing with pumping. The other issue I'm having is with the latch. She finds the nipple but only latches for a couple of sucks before coming off. We repeat this a couple of times and eventually she either gets upset or falls asleep. Each time it is literally only a couple of sucks so I don't think that she is getting any milk at all by doing that.

Any advice on why this might be happening and how I can get her to latch for more than a couple of sucks?

(She's been doing this from the start so I'm not sure it can just be that the bottle is making things worse)

Thank you!

She's expecting to get milk straight away because that's what happens with a bottle. She hasn't learned to suck to stimulate letdown yet.

You could try using a pump to stimulate letdown and then put her straight to the breast. You could also try a supplemental nursing system so she's sucking at the breast while taking expressed milk or formula, which will help her get used to the breast and also help to stimulate your supply.

Ps. Nobody's mature milk comes in for 2 or 3 days after birth anyway; what happened that she couldn't be fed colostrum after birth?

Thank you! That's really helpful. Will definitely try both of those.

I wasn't even producing any colostrum after birth so I didn't have anything to give her until day 5. She was in the NICU for several days (breathing difficulties) and on a glucose drip and eventually doctors recommended that we start her on formula so she was getting some nutrients in her. I don't know if perhaps the stress of her being in the NICU impacted things.

So sorry that you've both had a rocky start @Parks789. Are you getting any RL support?

I had this with our prem baby and it turned out to be an undiagnosed tongue tie. I had specifically asked the lactation nurse in NICU to check, and she said all looked fine. Baby also lost latch after a few sips.

Several months (!) afterwards we went to a specialist lactation nurse, who immediately diagnosed a tongue tie. (So upset it was missed for so long despite me asking NICU staff, HV, etc. We got the same nonsense about 'it is because baby had the bottle, it makes them lazy, etc.')

It was snipped there and then. Baby struggled to get used to the breast (it had been such a long time of bottles by then!), but I expressed and a few months later they suddenly saw the light. Now happily latches on everywhere.

@ncedforthisprofessionalquestion So sorry to hear that you had such a rough time. Really useful to hear that someone else has been through the same thing though. She did have a tongue tie which we got snipped and hasn't made any difference unfortunately. But took her to a breastfeeding clinic and they thought it might have reattached so geting someone back round next week to have another look. So it may well be that is the issue for us as well. How did you get your baby to eventually latch? Were you constantly putting them to the boob even though they were only doing a couple of sucks? I'm definitely not doing this enough. Feels like there's just not enough time once I've pumped and bottle fed! Thanks for your help.

@SiouxsieSiouxStiletto Thank you. Yes getting lots of general help from lovely friends and family. On the breasfeeding specifically, been along to a breastfeeding clinic and seen a lactation consultant who have both given helpful advice on the low supply but haven't really been able to help with the latch issue.

Have a go with shields. If she latches ok on that then I'd say it's tongue tie. It can re attach easily or sometimes they don't get it all the first time.

In your case, which is much earlier on than we were, I would make sure baby stays familiar with the boob. Maybe put her on for a little at the start of each feed and then bottle, until the latching issue is solved, but just to ensure she gets enough?

I received one of those little tubes as PP mentioned. I felt like I needed three arms. One to hold onto baby, one to bring baby's head to the boob and help the latch, and one to keep the tube correctly positioned. It wasn't for me, but I am uncoordinated, so perhaps it would work for you?

I would also ensure supply by extra pumping, especially if baby's suck is not really stimulating supply. Nobody told me this beforehand, but your supply builds up in the first 12 weeks after birth. Anytime afterwards building additional supply gets very, very hard. Babies in the end (just before weaning), will drink around 920-ish ml of milk per day on average (some less, some more). So you want to try to get your supply expanding in those first three months to get to near such a level, if you can. I didn't know this, and only pumped what my little prem drank each day, and by three months that was still just a little. On that level my supply largely stabilised (I was able to add a little more thanks to lots of pumping, but I played constant catch-up with baby's appetite.) Had I known to keep building up (in our case, excess) supply in those early weeks, it would have really helped me out later on. Now I needed formula to make up for it.

After our tongue tie snip they gave us exercises to help prevent reattaching, to do several times daily for several weeks. However, my sister did not get such exercises (her baby's tongue tie reattached). So it sounds like the guidance on that differs a bit depending on who does the procedure.