Newborn not latching properly

[MUMMA2BEX]

Hi my baby is 2 days old. My milk has come in and he's trying to feed (and getting a little bit might I add).

Every now and then he latches really well - but only when he's wide awake!! He sucks his lip a lot for comfort and when he goes to my boob doesn't open his mouth wide enough to latch properly and ends up just sucking his lip instead.

I've tried nipple to nose, nipple to cheek, nipple to lips but nothing is encouraging him to open wide, and once he's sucking his lip it's really hard to start the process again.

Any tips? Mostly regarding how to encourage them to open wide?

Thankyou x

Does he have a tongue tie? Jaundice? Have you had your midwife pop round to check on you two? Is he weeing/pooing okay?

Congratulations by the way!

When we had our baby 10 weeks ago, we did everything we could to make sure they were awake enough to feed - strip them down to their nappy if needed and put them on a cool changing mat so they aren't too cosy & warm, a d when they are feeding rub their feet, pull their body in close to you, stroke their cheek to keep them going. It's a pain but this stage doesn't last forever.

I have also found the FB group Breastfeeding Guidance & Support UK really helpful.

You could try the flipple technique/exaggerated latch. It is basically a way of shoving your nipple in their mouth to make sure you get a nice deep latch. I watched YouTube videos to find out how to do it.

Congratulations on your baby. Establishing breastfeeding is tough work and you're doing a brilliant job.

I second watching YouTube videos of flipple.

Also try burger, so getting his bottom lip on your nipple before his top lip. Like he is opening up his mouth wide to eat a burger.

2 days is still very little. I know a qualified lactation consultant who is an experienced bf herself and it took over a week for her to get a good latch with her second baby. You will get but don’t be afraid to unlatch and try again.

I had massive problems with latching and my baby lost 14% of her body weight by day 3. One reason was that she was just too sleepy to feed. In retrospect I wonder whether she was hypoglycaemic due to lack of food. We were told to feed her with a spoon...
In the end we decided to give hery milk in a bottle and she just gulped it down as she was clearly very hungry. After a few days she was alert enough to latch and feed well. We never had nipple confusion.

I just wanted to tell my story as I found this whole thing quite traumatic and as long as a baby is fed it's fine, breast or bottle doesn't matter.

We are 6 months in now and she's a great boob sucker btw :-)
But establishing breast feeding can be very hard and frustrating. You both have to learn.