Any tricks to get a baby to actually suck? (tiktok?)

[NotQuiteCockney]

I've been helping someone with a tiny baby - 36 hours old when I saw her. Baby rooting well, latched fine, but ... just sitting there, still.

There isn't a magic 'damnit start sucking now' button somewhere is there?

And yes, she will suck on a knuckle, so it's unlikely to be that she can't suck. Mums nipples are flattish, even retreating a bit, which may well be the problem.

Ds1 did this - we solved it by giving him a finger to suck on, and then transferring him. But he was never a good feeder - couldn't be bothered basically! He would much rather go to sleep.

Cheek stroking is supposed to trigger the suckling reflex.

Maybe get Mum settled and comfy, get baby properly latched and gently stroke his cheek, near to his mouth and see how that goes?

NQC - I know people will shout at me but I have large flat (one inverted) nipples and babies find it hard to latch in the beginning. What works for me are avent nipple shields. In the beginning they help the nipples to be drawn out without being damaged and make the latching and sucking easier for the baby. I know nipple shields are supposed to be a big no no but it's helped me establish feeding 4 babies including one set of twins who are now 2 1/2 weeks old. I got rid of the shields around 6 weeks (with the older two) when the nipples were drawn out and the babies were better feeders and fed my older two for 11 months each till they rejected the boob in favour of solids.

also will make hoochiemomma's breast compression technique suggestion for her.

buy a nipple cover with a slightly bigger nipple on it.that may help

Obv things to look for include tongue tie, other oral anomaly....and yep, maybe very flat/inverted nipps are not helping as they are not getting in far enough to stim. the sucking reflex.

So wide mouth, deep latch, assymetric latch will help - try biological nurturing posits, feeding in bath. Last resort - shield, but maybe not quite yet...judgement call.

Also: Has something maybe happened to make this baby 'zone out' when on/near the breast? Head pushing, rough handling?

Patience and gentle, kind care will help.

Meantime if the baby really has not sucked much, start hand expressing (not pump) of colostrum now and get it into baby asap.

HTH!

my midwife was really rough with my boobs as DS1 didnt latch on properly at first. He was very prem and didnt have much of a suck. She squashed my boob really flat and the nipple aswell so it would go in his mouth. He had a really small mouth because he was so prem and my boob was too big. Think i had produced enough for twins.His little nose couldnt get near me.

That seemed to work ,for me

In the case of flat/inverted nipples and related problems, I was advised by BF counsellor to use a nipple shield so that the baby had something to grab hold of. She warned that some women found that the baby did not get as much milk with a shield so recommended that I pump after. The nipple wasn't flat for long so it worked wonders for me.

I think cheek stroking makes babies latch, not suck?

She had a beautiful latch, we got her on a couple of times.

I think the mum might have done some shoving, she was surprised when I wanted to calm the baby after she got upset when latching on.

I don't think she had tongue tie, certainly I saw her stick her tongue out really well.

There is no magic formula I'm afradi. Ds got very distressed at the breast and refused to suck. There had been a bit of head pushing from the midwife.

We worked firslt at getting him clam at the breast. Lots of skin to skin, taking him in the bath. We then allowed him to lick the drips and also dripped expressed milk in a syringe down my breast into his mouth.

All this whilst expressing and cup feeding.

After about a month he suddenly latched on and decided to suck.