Breastfeeding

[FTM21]

Hello

I have been told my baby has a shallow latch however my baby is producing lots of wet and dirty nappies and is gaining weight rapidly. Should I be concerned about the latch or carry on as we are?

Is it causing you pain? Also how old is baby? Sometimes when our milk comes in we can have more than the baby needs so they get plenty quickly without much effort/feeding skill on their part. When supply settles down around 6 weeks having a shallow latch can be more of an issue as baby is more responsible for extracting the milk they need and they struggle to maintain weight gain. In other cases it can all work out OK.

In addition to the PP, a shallow latch may result in reflux later down the line, if it's not already (which is a journey not fun for anyone). Who is it that's commented on the latch?

Baby is 4 weeks old and no not causing any pain.
I don't know whether to keep trying or just give up but I really don't want to just yet.

If you want to keep trying then keep going! It sounds like you are both doing beautifully. I had a shallow latch with both of mine and it gets easier as they get a little bigger. As PPs have said, there can be issues with reflux and pain later on so perhaps continue working getting a deep latch. It’ll get there. Also, breastfeeding isn’t quite a linear journey as baby grows so a shallow latch today will quickly become old news and similarly new challenges will crop up. As long as baby is growing and hydrated then happy days.

Please don't give up! Baby and you are both still learning to b/feed and the latch will improve. I'm a FTM EBF 6 month old baby and it's definitely got easier and baby is much better at latching. Well done x

Do you mean give up breastfeeding? It certainly doesn't sound like there is any need to stop until you want to. Most babies can be supported to adopt a deeper latch just with better positioning. Make sure you're bringing the baby to you rather than dipping your nipple towards thrm and put their nose to your nipple so they tip their head back. If that's not working I'd recommend looking for videos of the flipple technique where you use your thumb to point your nipple away from baby's mouth to encourage them to latch on the areola under your nipple then flick the nipple itself in just before baby closes their mouth. Sounds complicated but if you watch a video or two it will make sense. You might also want to get someone qualified to have a look and make sure there isn't a physiological reason for shallow latch such as tongue tie. Many Many babies start out with a shallow latch just because they have a small mouth and things get naturally easier as they grow a bit.

When they told you baby has a 'shallow latch' did they actually say this was an issue or were they just making an observation? If they did say it was an issue did they not give you any tips to improve it? Positioning etc?

Really doesn't seem like a reason to stop at all if baby is thriving and you aren't in pain

Who has told you it's a shallow latch?
As you and baby are doing well there's absolutely no reason to give up sounds like you're doing brilliantly, your latch will continue to change anyway as baby grows / develops and like a PP said I found breastfeeding got so much easier with time