Breastfeeding support and nipple shields

[Ljm88]

Hi there, I'm new and hoping to get some advice on breastfeeding. My little boy is 8 weeks old and doing well. He was 14lbs in his 6 week weigh in and 10lbs 2 when he was born so gaining ok. He had somewhat of a traumatic birth, ended up being pulled out using forceps (consultant was pulling me down the bed), got shoulder dystocia, ended up with broken collar bone and cephalhematoma. His swelling has gone down and x-ray on collar bone shows it's healing well.

I struggled to get him latched on in the hospital, but eventually did. A midwife checked it and allowed us to be discharged. After around 3 days my nipples were cracked, bleeding and extremely sore. I asked another midwife at our check up to look at the latch and she said it was perfect and couldn't offer any advice. I was finding it excruciating and cried at every feed. I did some googling and found nipple shields. I've been using these since and have no pain at all now. But it did take 6 weeks for my nipples to fully heal and become pain free.

Whilst the shields have been a godsend I'm now trying to ween off them (just because it would be easier if I didn't have to use them). He will still latch on without the shields, but I get a squashed nipple with white compression line across by the end of the feed. This is what happened in the beginning before they cracked and bled, but my nipples are absolutely fine with the shields. The midwives have suggested using lansinoh, which I have done from the beginning. My GP said to air them out which helped with healing but not with the ongoing problem.

I rang the health visitor and she told me I shouldn't be using the shields but offered no other help but to suggest going to a mum's support group. I found this quite upsetting as I have tried extremely hard to continue breast feeding and found it difficult to admit I needed help. I'm at a loss where to go for extra help. I'm based in Doncaster and can't find any lactation specialists locally.

Reading up it sounds like the latch isn't deep enough. I've tried different positions but with him being chunky I find the cradle hold with a supportive cushion the easiest to maintain. I struggle to get him to open his mouth wide enough and if I do he seems to make it smaller once he's on.

Any advice offered would be really appreciated!

You'd obviously be best getting advice from someone experienced but have you tried breast sandwich?

You don’t need to wean off them. My DS is 14 months and we still use them. I don’t know why they are so demonised - I was told not to use them with my DD, and as a result she neve latched properly and we never managed to get breastfeeding going.

So with him I just used them and we had a brief spell around 9/10 months when he spontaneously latched without them, but his latch was always shite and I ended up shredded so we went back to using them. All through this I had support of a lactation consultant, and while she was initially keen for me to wean off them, eventually she agreed that they were the best thing in our situation, and when we had the attempted and failed wean off them at 9/10 months it was her that advised me to stick with them.

They’re a total lifesaver. I wouldn’t have breastfed DS without them and I don’t know what people have a problem with them for.

sounds like you're doing really well!

I had issues for a long time - agony, bleeding nipples - but persevered as ds was thriving and not keen on bottles despite my best attempts

I enlisted help from numerous HVs, BF workshops and lactation consultants. Some more useful than others.

Long long story but the reason I wanted to write is when I read what you write about the compression line, I suddenly remembered I had that too, every single time he fed (how could I have forgotten?! He's only 8 mo old!!) My nipples also went pale when anything pressed on them (eg bra)- I remember wondering if there would ever be a time when they werent sore, even showers hurt.

End of the story is that it resolved completely when he got a little bigger, and his mouth got bigger. So presumably latch improved then (I had fast flow too so he may have been clamping down when he was smaller and couldn't handle it).

Still BFing now and it's an absolute dream. He latches on now when I'm not expecting him to (eg sneaky latch as leaning down to put him in cot- topless of course! Cute but a little weird )

Get as much help and support as you can, but know if you're anything like me, that it's highly likely things will improve as your LO grows.

Good luck!

Oh darling you are doing so well to be feeding after all that! If the nipple shields work and baby is gaining weight nicely, don’t worry about it. Here’s some ideas that might help, but just keep on keeping on if you’re happy with how things are going...

• lots of skin to skin will hopefully help stimulate latching reflexes. If you are at home I would strip both of you down and just hang out skin to skin and see what happens.

• the health visitor may have meant a nuns support group with peer supporters. I’d have been pissed off with this idea when struggling to bf but am now a peer supporter and actually we can be very helpful!

• ask your health visitor for a referral to an infant feeding specialist to assess for tongue tie. Tell her you are thinking of quitting (I know you’re not but if you’re struggling but managing they’re less likely to throw resources at you)

• failing that pay for an appt with a Lactation consultant who is able to cut tongue ties if necessary. Finding a tongue tie is not as simple as looking under the baby’s tongue, five midwives told me my son didn’t have one but he did. — argh just reread and you can’t find a Lactation consulatant! Have a look at Little peach London online and see if she can help online. www.littlepeach.org

• it sounds like you both had a rough during labour and birth. A cranial osteopath did wonders on my son. People will tell you it’s woo but I was a complete skeptic even during our appt but the first feed afterwards was the first feed my son didn’t scream while trying to latch on. Get a personal recommendation though as some are charlatans. My local pct is currently running a clinical trial into cranial osteopathy and breastfeeding.

• look at videos of the flipple technique

• you’re doing a great job.

Have you tried feeding lying down in side lying position?

It is very unhelpful to be told you shouldn't be using them. Actually you've used them exactly according to best practice- as an emergency measure when BF was causing you to struggle, and now you would like some help to wean off due to convenience, a perfectly normal scenario.

People get confused because they shouldn't be seen as a preventative to problems and this gets confused (somehow) with they are terrible don't use them even when you have problems

If you're struggling to get your baby to open his mouth wide enough for a decent latch my first thought is tongue tie, this needs checking for by a person who knows what they are looking for. The sandwich boob thing can help but if he's physically unable to open his mouth that will be the real problem.

You don’t need to wean off them. I fed until my child was 19 months on them exclusively

Oh and her weight was always on her curve