Talk to me about breast feeding with inverted nipples please.

[mummyhill]

Ok I am 17+6 with my 3rd.

I didn't Breast feed with my 1st because like a fool I believed the hospital team who told me I wouldn't be able to because I have large boobs and inverted nipples.

I expressed for 4 months with ds as he would not latch.

If I can express I can feed right so hints and tips needed cause I would rather breastfeed than bottle feed if at all possible!

Hello mummyhill, good luck with the breastfeeding and well done you for giving it a go. I had big boobs and teeny nipples, after feeding dd for 18months and ds for 12months (and counting) they are transformed into 'real' nipples.

Get a good bit of the end bit including nipple and get it in your babies mouth (tickle his/her nose with it, then s/he will open his/her mouth). Babies work on the bit around the nipple not the nipple itself to get the milk out. Also if your boobs are big you can support them so the weight doesn't drag anything out of the baby's mouth: make a sling for your boob, or roll a muslin up and place it underneath, or don't be afraid to cup it with your hand while you feed. Oh and I recommend the rugby hold for when you have a newborn. Much easier.

HTH

Hi mummyhill, I have big boobs and my left nipple is inverted and it was a struggle on this side to start with but I fed both my dcs and dc2 until she was 11 months which felt like an achievement.

It was hard to start with as both babies "preferred" the right side at first but I kept going and I expressed on that side too and once they and I were established it was fine.

I like the rugby hold and also really liked lying down as you can get your boobs in a good position without having to worry about holding them etc!

Anyway, good luck, it can be done!

I have this problem but found that if I could get ds latched I could feed him from the right, and a bf counsellor at the hospital gave me a chopped up syringe to pull the nipple out, it's a bit horrible doing it but it works. After about a month I was able to feed ds from my left breast without this although it's still easier from the right.

I also found lying down much easier initially, and gradually it got easier to feed sitting up, just as well as bfing sends me to sleep and that's not always a good thing.

Thank you so much for the reassurances that it can be done and for the tips.

If anyone has any more I would be grateful, I want to go in armed with as much information as possible iyswim.

Hi, the chopped up syringe thing works 100% as the previous poster suggested- It applies suction and pulls out the nipple. It does not hurt, and you can do it before a B/F for the first few times. And then after the baby feeds a few times it does not invert again. And do try to avoid nipple shields until the inversion is corrected, since it delays it. Good luck!

Hope someone who really knows about this can help as I am not really well informed, but... I think Boots sells something that you need to use in the lead-up to the birth (i.e. you would be a good candidate) that gradually encourages the nipple out. When I saw it about 2.5 years ago it was near breast pads and breast pumps.

This is the fancy version of the chopped up syringe. You'd just need to check it's ok to use in pregnancy as it's pretty harsh (oh and if you wear it during the day you need LOADS of layers to make sure it doesn't show.

mummyhill - I am pregnant with number 4 and while 1 and 2 breastfed (for 9 and 12 months), number 3 didn't. She wasn't a natutal feeder like my other two and also found it more difficult latching on as I think my nipples had become inverted through the mastitis I suffered with numbers 1 and 2 and with the right hand nipple becoming enlarged and tough. I am keen to get this one feeding well and am intending to try and get the difficult side sorted early, atlhough recall that with number 3, as well intentioned as it was, I had to resort to trying the "better" side as she became increasingly weak through lack of milk. In the end, I gave EBM for 5 months reasoning that it wasn't so much the method as what went in that mattered and suspect I will have to be similarly pragmatic if it should come to it this time.

I did try the Nipplette but it can only be used in early pregnancy so make sure you check it out now if you want to try that solution out. I wasn't pregnant when I used it and it did work but I found it too cumbersome and a real faff and lost interest in it! Needless to say the problem came back after a little while. I think some inversions cannot be treated this way - apparently there are grades of severity - and it may be that while it provides a temporary solution, the problem recurs.

When I was getting ready to breastfeed, I found a quick go on my expressing machine to encourage the let down and pull out the nipples helped a lot. Do you have a machine/pump you could use?

PS - can you tell I have a placenta for a brain? Of course you have a pump having expressed for 4 months with your DS!

The Nipplette says that it can be used in the first 6 months of pregnancy, then again once the baby is born.

I don't have a pump at the momment, ds is now 3.5yrs and I wasn't going to have any more chioldren so sold it when I finished with it. However our local sure start centre has a free loan system for breast pumps so I may take advantage of that rather than trying to find £80+ for a new lactaline!