Breastfeeding painful 8 weeks in.

[Mushroo]

LO is 8 weeks old and I feel like breastfeeding is getting harder not easier.

She’s taken to it really well, I have a great supply and she’s gaining weight, but it hurts so much!

At first I thought I just had sensitive nipples. It did get better around 3/4 weeks but since then it’s getting worse.

The problem I think is that she just doesn’t open her mouth wide enough to latch. Even on the rare occasion that she does, she slips onto just the nipple within a couple of minutes.

Ive watched all the YouTube videos, I’ve seen the breastfeeding team, I’ve tried all the positions and the ‘flipple’ and the ‘sandwich’ and she just won’t do a deep latch. I also spoke to a LLL leader and she was not particularly helpful. Laidback breastfeeding doesn’t work at all - baby just face plants near my very sore nipples and makes me flinch.

All the advice has been to relatch if she’s shallow feeding, but we’ve had a ‘good’ latch about once in 8 weeks so I just feel there’s no point relatching as we just end up in the same position, but with a stressed baby.

We’re seeing a tongue tie specialist next week, but I don’t think she actually has tongue tie, I think she just has a small mouth, and I have large boobs with small nipples so it’s like a Chihuahua trying to bite into a beach ball.

I love the convenience of breastfeeding but it’s making me miserable - my nipples are so sensitive that showering hurts.

Does anyone have any advice? I feel I’ve tried everything and it’s just not working.

Hopeful bump

Shields?

To be honest - this was exactly me. It was awful, I hated it. Suddenly 10-12 weeks of age her mouth seemed to get bigger and her latch got much better. But it did take ages and I think I just had to wait for her mouth to be big enough to latch deeply. It was miserable. My friend also had the same experience. I hope it gets better for you soon.

Shields maybe? I'm really not an expert and I'm sorry it's hurting you.

DD had a crap shallow latch and grew out of it but I can't remember when.

Sounds like tongue tie to me, so great to hear you’re already booked into a specialist. You’d be amazed how much a tongue tie can prevent them opening their mouth and really does prevent a good latch. Hopefully it’s that and it’s an easy fix and you won’t be in pain anymore.

Thank you, good to hear I’m not alone and it can better this late on. Hoping her mouth grows soon!

Sort of hoping she does have a tongue tie as that seems an easier fix at this point, but then I feel horrible as the procedure sounds a bit traumatic. (I know it’s not really, but I’m dreading it, her vaccines were bad enough!)

Are there any BF peer support groups near you you can attend, they might be able to give some advice re if latch is an issue? They're usually a bit more chilled than LLL imo

Personally I found sometimes I just got sore nipples and it wasn't anything to do with my latch, I just needed to give them a break to heal. In those situations I had to keep feeding but used silverettes between feeds as it sped up the healing, then once they were healed problem solved :)

Don't be so hard on yourself. I tired nursing for 3 months and it did not get better for me. I would go see a Lactation consultant once a week after my little was born and we tried everything. I was exhausted, spending money we didn't have and in plenty of pain in my breast. It wasn't until I had such a large lump on my breast, that had turned purple that my consultant suggested I get surgery, she didn't think it was a clogged duct from the look. All I knew was that I didn't want to get surgery and risk more of myself with my newborn. So I weaned off nursing, was dried up within 3 days and my baby ate so much more with formula. At 1st it was hard with everyone saying I needed to nurse to provide. I'm not saying my story is what is best for you, but don't let shame get in the way of what is best for you.

Thanks everyone. To update we saw the tongue tie team today and she had one! It’s been cut so I’m although we don’t have an immediate improvement I’m hoping we’ll start to get some over the next few days.

Im also going to a breastfeeding support group on Friday.

Im already feeling much more positive so I’m so glad I hung in there waiting for the tongue tie appointment - was honestly ready to quit last week.

Following with interest - my baby is a month old. Word of warning -- we started to see an improvement 2 weeks after the tongue tie rather than a couple of days, but the improvement was quite significant.

Have you seen a cranial osteopath? I have the same small mouth big boob issue, and trying to make sure there isn't tension preventing baby opening wider.

Well done on persevering with the TT, I really hope things improve for you both.

Just in case it's helpful, this is also pretty much exactly our issue too. A posterior tie that was cut at 3 weeks but they missed an anterior tie that was cut at 10 weeks. She also has a lip tie which supposedly doesn't affect things. Same anatomical mismatch - tiny mouth/big boob/small nipple. We had lipstick nipple and pain as well as early issues with complete inability to latch/poor transfer/slow weight gain. I have to say we saw gradual improvements after both TT procedures but it wasn't magically solved. Her transfer got much better but I had pain (friction blisters in our case) up until about six months and now at seven months I would say BF is finally easy, although we still only do rugby hold which is not convenient when they are bigger! We've tried everything - osteopaths, exercises, different positions, flipple etc etc but I'd say the main factor was time.

I was quite despairing after the second cut as I'd put all my hope in that resolving things. BF was something I really wanted to do and had become an important part of our bond, so I'm glad I persevered - we made it with the help of an amazing IBCLC who basically just gave me confidence and resilience to keep going. However looking back it would also have been totally fine to stop given how long we struggled for. It took us much longer than the advice generally says but it did get better.

@PoppingTomorrow osteopath is next on my list if we don’t get a natural improvement.

So far it’s definitely better, it’s gone from ‘toe curling’ when latching to ‘uncomfortable’ so heading in the right direction.

The midwife did however agree she has a small mouth so I expect there’s only so much improvement we can get with the anatomy mis-match!