Breastfeeding - How do I get my little one to open his mouth bigger?

[Mollydolly124]

Hello All,

Moving on from my last thread, I have started to offer Lewis the breast on every feed now (not that he is satisfied on every feed) I am now having the problem that he wont open his mouth wide enough - leading to bad attachement - leading to a VERY SOAR NIPPLE!!

I blistered up and have been using the cream but on every feed now I'm having problems and the he ends up slipping just on to my nipple, so I have to take him off and start again and then by the end of his feed my nipple is so tender it's not nice.

Any help would be ab fab.

Many thanks all you great Mums. xxx

You could try this exercise to try and get DS to open wider. If latch gets uncomfortable don't hestitate to take him off and try again. Also make sure to air your nipples a lot between feeds as well as using the cream. Hope it sorts itself out soon, well done for carrying on!

I used to have the same problem with ds, he was such a lazy feeder, barely opening his mouth, like I was going to squirt it in or something Anyway.... after trying many techniques, the bf counsellor said why don't you let him latch on as he wants to then pull his bottom lip down a bit more so he slides down a bit further on to the nipple. What I did was not dissimilar to charchargabor's exercise, but with him latched on, I'd gently pull his bottom jaw down a bit using my finger against his chin. It wasn't ideal, and it took some time to get right, but it got us through the first few months until he was old enough to learn he had to do it himself.

Stimulate that groove on his top lip (between his nose and his lip)with your nipple and he might open his mouth WIDE!

I had the same problem with ds - agree with gently pressing his chin, and also trace your nipple from the tip of his nose and he will automatically open wider.
Not that it helps now - but it does get much better the bigger he gets as he will be able to latch better.
I really sympathise - well done for persevering! I am still bf ds at almost one year old despite not thinking I would get through the first months!

take him away from boob, wait til he starts screaming then shove it in...

My DS just would not latch on properly. The tickling his top lip with the nipple bit certainly seemed to get him to open his mouth wider but as soon as he started to feed he would slip off so that he just had a small mouthful. If I took him off and tried to get him to latch on properly again it just ended up in one frustrated baby and sore boobs for me.

It was very painful at first but strangely enough we seemed to find a compromise. His latch is still not good but he gets as much milk as he wants and I'm not sore. I'm not sure how we got to this point but I think it was just perserverance - also I think I stopped pulling him off if his latch was any more than just on the end because I the constant latching on and off made me far more sore than an OKish latch.

My advice would be try the different techniques and try not to get to stressed about it all. If you find the strength to persevere you'll find a solution for you both in the end. Well done for sticking with it

first trick that may work - wait a second longer, he may open wider

trick two- make a sandwich of your breasts offering him a mouthful ready to bite into.
thumb and first finget an inch above and below areola respectively, so you flatten the areola and some tissue around it.