HELP! Tongue Tie snipped yet nipples still coming out lipstick shaped...

[Misspaella]

I need help/tips please as BF still so painful!

DS is now 8 days old and self latched straight from birth. I noticed right away that even with a good latch my nipples would come out a bit lipsticky (pinches a 1/4 of the nipple bit closest to my chest as opposed to the bit towards the underarm).

I had a lactation consultant come to my home and help guide me through my latch and she noticed DS had tongue tie.

We decided to go private and have the tongue tie snipped last Friday (DS 6 days old then) but my nipples are still coming out "lipsticky".

What else can I do to get this right? I've already had 2 private lactation consultants come to my home to help me with my latch. I am getting the aerola in and tipping the nipples up and forward correctly. I slide his mouth about to find the less pinching latch possible and roll his bottom lip out if needed.

Is it just a case of DS having to retrain his tongue since the snip on Friday? Should I be stretching the breast in a certain direction?

HELP please. I am having to grit my teeth through most feeds.

I have 2 other DC's (4yrs, 2 yrs) so really want to crack this before everything gets on top of me.

poor you, can only add that my nipples were always this shape (infact very similar to the shape of NUK teats which are meant to be as close to breastfeeding as possible)and that feeding was so painful for me for about 3 weeks, so much so that when he would cry for a feed my heart would sink. I think you are right and it will take a little time. The only thing I found that helped was to use the gel packs that you put in the fridge ( i bought special breast ones from boots) and I would put it into my bra straight after and that relieved it somewhat)Hope it gets better soon!!

I had same problem with my baby, but only got tongue tie snipped at 7 weeks, and think his technique was well entrenched by then so took a month or two before his technique was better. There was no quick fix, it improved gradually over time, and am still feeding 3 times a day with him now 11 months ( though trying to reduce down now!)

You might get a quicker result as snipped much earlier, so you could just try grinning and bearing it and seeing if improves with time. None of the advice that i got re latch worked. It was just a time thing. Not easy though - big sympathy to you.

try different positions, rugby hold, lying down, so that different part of nipple is being squashed.

i never managed to solve this myself, after a few weeks ds's mouth and head just got a bit bigger and it was ok.

so i can witter on about harm minimisation if you like but hopefully there will be a cure suggestion posted next.

I'm going to bump this. Hoping there are more experiences with this out there? Feeding still painful and nipples coming out slightly pinched and I dread feeding sometimes.

Will it really just right itself? Or is this my life.......

After Ds had his tongue tie snipped at nearly 4 weeks, it took me quite a while to start to feel any improvement tbh. I was expecting a quick fix and it was my lowest point with BF when I realised it hadn't had the desired effect.

I was in so much pain and at the point of giving up and introduced a bottle either of FF or EBM during the evening cluster feeds as I found this the worst time emotionally and physically. It gave me the break I needed and I was able to stop this once feeding had improved.

But, it did get better and I fed to well beyond a year, so it was worth it.

Have you checked the top lip too, I gather that can also be tied and cause problems, My DS has this and I have wondered if this ( coupled with late diagnosis) was why he took longer to improve.

I think it also takes a while for all the damage to get better and for your baby to re learn the correct technique.

The latch you are doing sounds like it, but have you seen the exaggerated latch picture, I think you can google it. I was recommended this.

Also i would recommend seeing a Bf counsellor again to see if they can help or support in any way.
Good luck.

Mine were a bit like this at first (ds not tongue tied to my knowledge).

Checking latch and adjusting each time it hurt helped a lot (it then didn't hurt at all), and a bit of time. Think as ds's mouth got bigger it helped, also making sure I put nipple right to back of mouth too. By three weeks I don't think it hurt at all (apart from the odd day of biting much later ). And after three weeks he had settled down too (less leakiness).

He is now just over one year old and we are still going (can't really believe it, breastfed my first for three weeks)

[[http://www.sunderland.nhs.uk/admin/mopil/pdf/20060405104105.pdf Here is a good leaflet with fantastic pictures that really helped me)

bah
www.sunderland.nhs.uk/admin/mopil/pdf/20060405104105.pdf

ps Lansinoh was a saviour first time round. This time I just used breastmilk.

DS also had tongue tie and poor latch. The snip didn't immediately solve the problem either. For us it was a combination of re-learning latch and just getting bigger I think. It is early days though - we were told it can take 1-2 weeks for things to improve after snip.

Can you get the LC back to check latch again post-snip?

Second the idea of trying different positions too.

Big hugs, it is horrible to endure.

Thanks for these tips.
It seems to be worse on my left breast. For some reason my nipple on this one is bigger.

I really thought it would be an instant fix so trying to persevere through some feeds which are just toe curling pain (and I thought I could deal w/pain bearing in mind 2 out of 3 births were w/gas and air only!).

I have spoken to the lc and she has given me more advice re latch. Hopefully DS's mouth gets bigger faster too.

May need to pop into a bf group this week to just adjust latch again.

Thanks for the advice.

Yes, my nipples seemed to look enormous. I really feel for you, I agree that toe-curling breastfeeding pain (where you dread them latching on) is worse than birth pain in a way.

I do think latch is very important. I thought I had a really good latch (ds latched on straight away seeimngly well) but it was able to be improved. Mine was about night-time lazy latching I think...

Keep going, it really shouldn't hurt. I thought that was rubbish before but I was quickly able to lose the pain, so keep persevering with getting the help and support. And big hugs cos it is no fun dreading every feed. My friend used nipple shields occasionally when it got reeeeeally bad?

Fingers crossed for you x