I didn't want to stop bfing but she just doesn't latch the same anymore

[tellnoone]

DD is about 14mo and for the past several weeks her latch has been awful, causing really sore nipples and pain whilst feeding (teeth digging in). She just will not open her mouth wide enough. So I cut back and now stopped completely. I'm so sad.

It may have been sabotaged by having narrow neck bottles of EBM 3 days a week since about 9mo - but for the first month or 2 everything was fine. So I suppose I don't really understand what's gone wrong. I'm sure I could feed again (supply-wise) as it's only been stopped for a couple of days.

Please help - is there anything I can do to make her open her mouth wider?

The onlt y thing I can think of is to take her off every time its wrong until you get a good latch. you've probably both got a bit lazy as time goes by (I know I did!) She'll soon get the message that if she wants booby she must do it properly.

Have you gone back to basic principles? If you haven't, can you pretend you are feeding for the first time and look at the angle you are latching her on at? You are right, she needs a wide mouth to latch on correctly.

DS1 wouldn't open his mouth wide when he first learned to feed. I had to touch his top lip on my nipple, which produced an instant mouth opening from him, but had to learn then to woosh his little head in very quickly (whilst remembering to support him by the neck not the back of his head, otherwise his head wasn't far enough back). If I missed the split second opportunity, I had to take him off and start again . . .

Sooooo sorry she is doing this to you! But well done for getting to 14 mo.

Hoping that Tiktok or another expert might see this too, and offer their advice.

lol - X-post, but kathryn puts it rather more succinctly than me!!!

It's not a combination of a consistently poor latch and returning periods/ovulation causing pain? I used to get painful nipples when ovulating, I regularly thought uhoh that's thrush starting and then I'd work out what it was.

Def go back to first principles, it can make all the difference, even if you already have grazes that are taking a while to heal and feeling awful as a result.

My ds did this for a while (he was older though, prob around 2). I was briefly pregnant and he was hurting my tender pg nipples.

I told him that mummy's nipples were sore and he had to open very wide, taking him off until he did it properly. I used to say "big mouth, AAAAAH like this" and he was fine.

I would guess that at 14 months, there will be a pretty good level of understanding.

Thanks for all the replies. The problems started after she turned one - and I got my first period on her birthday. Together with the lazy latch things have just been awful and a bit of a shock to have sore nipples after an entire year of easy bfing. Yes I think I need to teach her to open up and latch properly again. I do want to try again, it's too upsetting to stop now.

Good luck tellnoone. I hope you get it sorted. I have never tried them, but many people on here swear by silverettes for sore nipples.