Breastfeeding for one year with nipple shields

[AlexH13]

I’m approaching one year breastfeeding with nipple shields.

My baby had/has a high palate and this is what has always worked for us - thanks to an incredible midwife who suggested I use one in the middle of the night after my son was born and wasn’t feeding. In the early days, despite my son gaining weight very well, I heard horror stories about how bad it was to use shields and how, at the very least, they should only be used as a temporary measure. I knew I wanted to feed to at least a year if possible and so spent a lot of time Googling to see if this was possible with shields and had real trouble finding any examples or experiences. So I promised myself that, if I made it to a year, I would add my story so that other women searching in the middle of the night on zero sleep might take comfort from it. Trust me, it absolutely is possible and remarkably fuss free. I plan to continue until he wants to stop.

No expert but happy to answer any questions if people have them.

That's great you had the courage to go for it and it worked out. I wonder if the recommendation to use nipple shields for the minimum time is because the baby starts to rely on them and they are an added step, putting people off carrying on. It sounds like you did a great job persisting for a year.

I did exactly the same. If it wasn't for shields I wouldn't have been able to breastfeed.
I stopped using them at around 6 months, and my little girl is 3 now and still bf once or twice a day.

This gives me hope! I'm so close to giving up breastfeeding due to DD's poor latch coupled with my flat nipples. Feeding team have suggested to offer breast (despite being incredibly painful) and also express. I get very little time to do anything else and I'm feeling that life right now is pretty miserable. I'd love to continue breastfeeding, minus the bleeding, cracked and painful nipples and hope that using shields will help. Are there any you'd recommend?
Thanks

I used nipple shields for the first few months as baby was prem and just need more to get hold of. Good lord the COMMENTS from people! She'll never stop (OK, so what?), it's not natural (well, the milk is, so...), she's not getting the benefit of skin to skin (we do other skin to skin) and so on. The only negative I ever found to them was a very small benefit about baby saliva getting into nipples improves the immune response in your breastmilk and nipple shields may possibly limit that..... that's it.

One day my little girl was happy without, but I would have happily used them forever if it meant she would feed.

Well done you, and well done for spreading awareness.

Thank you for sharing this! I was on the verge of quitting altogether today, after 4 weeks of triple feeding, no great improvement in latch 2 weeks after a TT division and LO originally refusing shields. I saw your post and decided to give it one last attempt and he fed beautifully and is actually asleep after a bf without a supplement! It’s given me the confidence to keep trying.

Me too!!!

used them to 10 months with dd and still going at 12 months with ds. No problems at all.

I highly recommend them for struggling mums and found ignoring the scare stories very helpful. So much nonsense.

I use Medala- they are just a good fit for me. Mam ones were pinchy.

good luck ladies!

My mum needed to use shields. Good on you for doing what worked 🙂

I used them for breastfeeding my twins as I was so sore. I used them for 3 months until I was feeding with no discomfort (my nipples were bleeding and scabbed initially - the pain on feeding was awful - and the shields were a Godsend to let them heal). I discontinued them at 3 months but only because I wanted to not have the hassle of them. The babies didn’t mind them at all. Marvellous things nipple shields.

It's good to know theres a future in this for me and DS.
We are approaching 2 months and I'm almost ready to give up.
He had a severe tongue tie and a high palate so the midwives in hospital recommended we use a shield and it works!
Well, kinda. Even with the shield he did some fairly significant damage to me and at one point we had to stop a feed because there was blood pouring out of me over both of us and I was sobbing in pain with every feed. Turns out this was caused by his tongue tie (it was baaaaad). We had it sorted and now with the shields he feeds completely pain free 😁.
We wondered if we could go without after but his high palate means he still cant latch properly without.
My one problem is getting him in place. Once he is on and latched it's great for us.
But how do you get them there? One hand maneuvering the baby, 1 hand supporting their head, 1 hand holding the shield in place. I dont have the hands for it! Our success always comes when DH is home to help get him on me.
Any advice? I want to be able to feed without having someone provide the 3rd hand the shield requires.
This is even worse because they always recomend offering both breasts twice during a feed. This is 4 attachments! The most we have managed is each breast once per feed and he normally ends up with the shield in his hand at some point in the middle where he pulled it off.