How to wean off nipple shields?

[IrisRoon]

Hi everyone, hope you're all well!

I have a 5 week old baby girl. The first 2 weeks of breastfeeding for me was extremely difficult with cracked, blistered, bleeding nipples. The day after giving birth my nipples were so damaged that the midwives in the hospital were shocked looking at them. My whole body filled with dread at every feed, I pushed through with tears and gritted teeth. I thought this was all normal until a lactation consultant told me that my baby has a very shallow latch. She told me how to latch her properly, but baby wouldn't tolerate it. When I get her to latch deep she'll shake her head and fight to move to a shallower position, my LC told me I'll have to "retrain" her to accept a deeper latch, but I couldn't get it. I have suspicions her mouth is just too small but I'm completely guessing here.

I then discovered nipple shields, I've been using the MAM ones and honestly they're great. It helped me actually enjoy breastfeeding instead of crying at the thought of it! I used them exclusively for 2 days to give my nipples a chance to heal. Except after those two days, baby just refuses my bare nipple. I can get her to latch and sometimes stay for a minute or two, but then she fights against it and will refuse to stay on. Most times she just pulls off straight after latching though. I feel extremely lucky to have a good supply and I'm terrified of it being ruined by the shields as I've heard can happen. It doesn't feel like baby is getting a strong suck with the shield on, compared to when she fed straight from the breast she had a very strong latch. Despite this with the shields my breasts get very soft after a feed and I feel like baby is draining them well. I really want to wean off the shields but I'm at a loss as to how, I'm kicking myself for ever using them but they really were necessary at the time with the amount of pain I was in.

Has anyone used shields for a prolonged period of time and been okay? Anyone experienced a supply drop? Any tips for weaning baby off them? Also when I can hopefully get baby to accept the bare nipple, any tips on how to "retrain" her to accept a deep latch? It was frustrating for her and me to have to keep relatching her every 30 seconds because she prefered a shallow latch.

Thank you all in advance and sorry for the long post! I love breastfeeding and I really don't want to harm supply in any way!

I used for around 3 months or so- I think as baby got older the latch got stronger. They had one preferred side so I dropped the shield for that one first- just forgot it as I recall and baby was able to latch. After a couple of weeks they decided they could latch on the other. I had no issues with supply and without the shields initially I wouldn’t have managed at all.

Thank you for your response! It makes me so happy to hear that your supply wasn't affected, that's my biggest fear. Good idea about the dropping one side first, I'm hoping one day she'll just accept the breast like your little one. I'll try not to stress as much about getting her off them ASAP, you've really eased my mind about longer use.

Agree about not managing at the start without them. I'd like to think I would've just pushed through the pain but honestly I don't think I would've been able to. It was genuinely awful horrible pain. I was so naive! Before I had my baby I thought breastfeeding was just whip the boob out and there ya go, but I was very quickly proven wrong lol.

I used them for ages too, can’t remember how long but at least 2-3 months. Health visitor was moaning that my baby wouldn’t get enough milk, but he was gaining weight and thriving.
and is a healthy toddler now.

just make sure you keep them clean and sterilise (and change) them regularly

Your baby is still tiny, I think I used them until my baby was 4-5 months. Just don’t worry about it for now, as long as she gets the milk she is fine and obviously it’s important you are pain free.

Breast feeding with nipple shields is better than not breast feeding - I never managed without them but it was fine.

Has she been checked for tongue tie? This could be a reason for shallow latch?

Has she been assessed for a tongue tie?

Some babies take a while. I'd try things like:

• continuing to see the lactation consultant to get help on a deep latch. It can be very overwhelming to learn all the tweaks to position your baby when we are sleep deprived and our brains are just too full. It can take weeks for you both to get it.
• try expressing so your baby gets milk the instant she latches to the breast - instant gratification!
• are you shaping your breast and keeping the shape throughout the feed?
• don't try latching her on the breast when she's really hungry.
• lots of skin to skin and maybe allow her to latch in a laid back hold.
• for now, maybe just try to tip the balance between shield feeds and no shield feeds.

I used them for my first DC for about 8 weeks I think. No issues with growth or supply at all but he did have a lot of reflux which improved after I got rid of the shields. I still am glad I used them.

As he got bigger he seemed to be better able to latch and one day I just tried without the shields and all was ok. I'm so pleased my Spanish midwife told me to try them as I know the official guidance is against them. Without them I would not have managed to feed my baby as I wanted to.

Dc2 had a tongue tie and lip tie so I suspect dc1 had one too but noone spotted it.

I used them for around five months. Spent a long time trying to get her off them, two tips I had were lots of skin to skin and trying during the night feeds when they are more relaxed, but after a lot of tears and frustration (on my part as much as hers!), I gave up trying. Lo and behold she just latched without them one day and has never looked back! She's now two and we're still feeding, something I never could have imagined. So my advice would be, by all means try to wean her but don't stress too much, she'll likely come off when she's ready and if not, it's fine to keep using them for as long as you both wish to feed. Best of luck.

I used shields for a few months as baby was having problems with a strong letdown, but she then refused to feed without them. They were great on the one hand as they meant fewer tears during feeds, but I definitely came to regret using them when it became clear that they were contributing to mastitis. Eventually at about 4 months, baby just decided she didn’t need them anymore. If you’re not having problems with mastitis and you don’t mind the faff of having to make sure you always have a clean one with you, I wouldn’t worry. Just regularly have a go with letting her feed without one and see how she gets on.

I used them until 12 weeks or so but there is absolutely no need to stop using them if you don't want to (assuming baby is gaining weight well etc.). I stopped using them on a day that was relaxed and I could take time feeding so baby could get used to it.

Just to give a little bit of perspective here as I was in a similar position and no one really spoke about using shields and then when I started asking, turned out my entire NCT group was, and a significant proportion of my friends did at one stage or another. I now recommend them to all new mums if asked as they saved my bf journey and only one friend mentioned them to me (and I was absolutely desperate on day 2/3). You're doing great, you're only 5 weeks in and congrats!

Used them for ten months with my first until she decided she had too much going on for a breastfeed.

14 months with my second until he was done too.

they are a godsend, not the devils work, in my view. honestly the midwife who showed me how to use them when I was first back home was like an Angel who came to help me feed my baby and heal my poor nipples.

with my first I saw loads of nurses in the hospital before discharge, an nhs latch consultant and one private one. She spent about 2 hours with me and just could not get a good latch naturally. Poor lass was sweating! In the end she gave up and said just to use the shields if they were working. DD went from 50th to 97th centile whilst breast feeding.

never bothered trying to get rid with my second. He thrived when he was breastfed.

Same here. I did try a few times to wean off them as advised but in the end it was easier to keep using them. I was prone to mastitis but I think that was due to over supply, not under. I had fat babies!

I used them for over 2 years! With both dc

No supply issues and although they are not for everyone it was much easier for me

She has and my lactation consultant said she has a slight one. She told me if feeding is still painful then she can refer me to get it snipped. I'm not sure if it's just that she's learned a bad latch (LC said it could take a while to relearn her to latch properly) or if it's the tongue tie causing the issues. She can latch deeply on a bottle teat, and with the shields. If the tongue tie was bad would it prevent bottle and shield latching also? It's just the bare breast that she doesn't latch deeply on. She can latch deep and drink but after a minute or so she moves to a shallower position.

Thank you all for your experiences and replies! Yesterday was our first day in like 3 weeks fully fed with no shield! I just tried the night before last and she latched on and didn't refuse it, I don't know what changed! Still having issues with a deep latch, she is latching deeper than she was before the nipple hiatus, but it's still a bit too shallow and feels pinchy. My right nipple has already gotten pretty sore, but my left one is okay. Kinda makes me want to use the shield for my right but I only got her off them so I'd rather not. I was enjoying my pain free feeds though lol, but determined to make this work. Gonna have another visit from the lactation consultant and see how we can improve! Thank you all again :)

Yes its very easy for baby to latch onto nipple shields a d bottle hence why TT is so under diagnosed.

Ahh thank you for letting me know! If latch doesn't improve after like a week of practice I think I'll definitely ask my LC for a referral to get it snipped.

Some babies with very severe ties struggle to latch onto anything but generally because BF is a different way of using the mouth/tongue the difference really shows on the breast.

It may be both the TT and the positioning/attachment. Please don't fall into the trap of thinking a TT snip will be a magic bullet. It can make an immediate difference but then the baby needs to relearn how to move their tongue so it can take a couple of weeks - plus if you don't have optimal P&A things won't necessarily improve.

I used them with both my dd's (was agony without) and then just gradually reduced having them on. I did get dd2's tongue tie snipped at 5 weeks and that helped along with I think her just being a little bigger and stronger. The lactation consultant said to not use the nipple shields while her tt snip was healing.

My friend has inverted nipples and used nipple shields for every feed for both her kids until 1 ish/stopped breast feeding. She had no issues with supply.

Just keep trying but if your nipples start to suffer I'd use again.