Is it possible to teach an older baby to latch?

[mummalish]

My baby would not latch on at birth, and I kept trying for a few weeks, with alot of help. I eventually stopped trying. He has been having expressed milk, but I want to try again to get him to latch.

Does anyone have any experience of this, and could it work. Baby is 3 months old.

Thank you. x

Not 3 months, but DS latched after a week of expressed milk. What bottles are you using? I don't really have any advice other than loads of skin to skin and give it a go, maybe after a bit of expressing to make your nipple stick out and milky. And when baby is pecking rather than really hungry as he may get very fustrated.

pecking? I meant peckish!

Using Avent bottles. I never understood why he didnt want to latch. He latched maybe once or twice, but not for long.

I am thinking of trying again, so badly want it to work.

Give it a go! Treat it as a fun experiment and see what happens . I am trying to view teaching ds (4mths) to drink from a bottle or a cup like this. (and well done for expressing and so thereby giving him breastmilk for so long)

umlellala, if your ds can learn to drink from a bottle, mine could learn to take the boob. Lets hope it all goes smoothly

mummalish

Yes it is possible, my ds would not latch on at birth, i gave up trying and was giving him ebm in a avent bottle.

When he was nearly 5 weeks old he finally latched on
he loves my boobs now.

Just keep putting him to the breast before every feed, if he gets upset calm him down and try again, it might take him a week or so for him to latch on but keep trying it is so worth it in the end.
My ds is mixed fed at the moment im working on my supply.
I see a great bfc who helped me loads.
Good luck

thank you lollyheart, good to hear a success story.

I have just tried him, and he got fussy and cross, so I stopped. He hates it when I even put him tummy to mummy. Hates it when I manoevre his head to my breast, he doesnt seem to hate the actual boob itself, but wont give it a chance.

So frustrating. But will try every day and see how it goes. I totally gave up in the beginning, because of all this behaviour, and no councellor or advisor could help or understand why.

It's such a pain in the bum expressing all the time, and not practical at all. He now has cows milk allergy (tried him on formula, with disastrous consequences). He refuses the prescribed formula, I dont blame him, I tasted it and it is seriously foul.

He sounds just like my ds used to be.

You say he hates it when you try and put his head to your breast, my bfc said babies hate thier heads being pushed to the breast, to get him closer to you put your hand on the top off his back and if he opens his mouth push him gently towards your breast.

Another trick she showed me was give him an oz from a bottle first then try to latch him on, this worked a treat for us

I really want to come and show you how to do it i could of wrote your op a few weeks ago.

Hello, my little boy took a little bit of milk from a cup today - and even started sucking a bit at the bottle. Mummalish, have you tried Oesteopathy? www.occ.uk.com might be able to help, especially if he doesn't like the positioning.

You might need some help with positioning which naturally changes as you go through each week and they get bigger and able to do more. He probably won't appreciate being held like a baby.

It is possible to do, I've heard of people in a similar situation restarting at 6 months and toddlers restarting when they have a new sibling - even one who wasn't still at the breast at a year old.

lollyheart, thank you, this gives me hope. Thanks to everyone for the encouragement, I really want this to work, will let you know what happens.

It makes me wonder though, if this was hundreds of years ago, and there were no such things as breast pumps and bottles, what would a mum do if her baby did not latch. I dont know if my baby would have taken the boob even if he was starving, as he considered my boob something that was distressing to him (still dont understand why).

Umlellala
Well done to you and your ds

mummalish your ds will learn that your breasts have food in them and will love them.
Keep us posted.

If it doesnt work out you have tried your best

I think they would just keep putting the baby on until they got it and didn't have the same worries about how old they were before the first feed. Also they would be more aware of how to encourage breastfeeding from the start - for example the amazing breast crawl! And the mother would have more confidence in her own body and breastfeeding as it's what everyone does. Our culture puts a lot of barriers in the way of breastfeeding.