Successful BF stories Second time

[NewmumOct]

Hi i am a new mum with a 4 month old FF baby. I suffered with very bad nipple pain when initially trying to BF DS the first few weeks and unfortunately my BF journey ending very early on. His latch was fine as it was assessed several times by different health professional. I know worry that i will not be able to BF my future babies. Not being able to BF my DS has effected me alot and still does. I tried soo hard to make it work but the pain was unimagineable. Any mum have successful breastfed their second baby after a struggle with firsf?

I say it on here all tbe time but the silver cups saved my journey, took away the most exctriating pain within 24 hours... They're worth a try if you didn't use them last time xx

*excruciating

Yep I have breastfed my second and didn’t with my first. I was determined to do it as my first was a terrible bottle feeder and i felt guilty for giving up breastfeeding early on. I didn’t have pain I just couldn’t cope with the relentless of it first time round and was very anxious about if she was getting enough. This time I just read up a bit more on it and knew what to expect. So I suppose my challenges are different to yours but I would say my second did take to it a lot easier that my first so I think each baby is different so just cos it didn’t work out this time doesn’t mean it won’t next time. I know people who could bf their first but second just wouldn’t take to it. I’m not nearly 5 months in at ebf and it gets easier as time goes on but their are always bumps in the road even at this stage.

@Rowen32 Thanks i used silver cups very early on they helped some what but never made a huge difference

The other thing I was told was to make sure baby was touching the breast at four points - their nose, both cheeks and their chin... Only one midwife told me about the cheeks and it made all the difference, I had only been checking nose and chin

Yep, really struggled with my first, mixed fed for a couple of months then stopped. Second went much smoother, BF until she was nearly 3! Not sure if her latch was better, but I do remember gritting my teeth and counting to 20 in the early days waiting for the initial pain to stop.

I never attempted breastfeeding my eldest, i was very young having her. I wanted to give it a try with my next child but the pain was excruciating! I didn't even manage a week, my breasts were purple with bruises, the nipple pain and the engorgement was awful. They felt like they were on fire, were constantly bright red and hard as rock. I also had terrible afterpains, some were worse than labour contractions. Was told latch was fine, just grit your teeth through first 30 seconds but it wasn't just uncomfortable initially, it hurt like hell for the whole feed and even when not feeding my breasts were in constant pain.

Just had my 3rd 6 days ago. She doesn't latch properly so I had the nipple pain from the beginning again. I also had really bad after pains for the first 24 hours but I got some pain relief down me and regularly took it, only paracetamol and ibuprofen which was fine for me to take but might not be safe for everyone. I started using nipple shields from day 2 before any damage could start and I have say I've found it so much better this time around. It's a bit uncomfortable but nothing compared to before. The engorgement lasted 2 days and although they were like rocks again and uncomfortable, hot and a bit red, they were nothing like the pain I had last time.

I honestly thought it would be the same again but I can definitely see me sticking this out for a while. I'm having more and more feeds now where I hardly feel any discomfort and I'm starting to enjoy them. I've also been using Lanolin cream.

Sorry that was so long but I was also someone who thought I would never be able to do it after last time and my pain threshold is pretty high! Also, please don't beat yourself up, if you had carried on you would have been absolutely miserable or going crazy with the pain. Well done for doing what was needed at the time.

First two were fairly easy to feed. Number two was a feeding all the time, he eats all the time now! Three was a nightmare and I bear the scars 5 years later! They are all different. Use loads of Lansinoh.

Much easier for me on my second - she just latched much more naturally. But then refused a bottle - I ended up breastfeeding her until the day I went back to work and then like magic she took a bottle!

Bf my second was a dream compared to my first - night and day.

I had weeks of nipple pain, damage, infection etc before it eventually clicked (just by ds1 growing bigger I think). Looking back I suspect that along with flat nipples and poor latch there was probably an undiagnosed tongue tie.

Anyway, ds2 was a totally different story. He was far better at opening his mouth properly and latching and ds1 had kind of (traumatically!) fixed my flat nipples. A bit of pain at first but then we were away.

There were 6 years between my two and I'd promised myself that I wouldn't put myself through the pain and insanity that was the first time around and would just stop if it got bad again but it was great. Bf for a year even though I went back to work at 6 months.

Ds2 refused bottles when I went back to work the wee besom, despite having been fine with occasional bottle feeds from birth!

He just had water from a cup or yoghurt during the day and had massive feeds from me in the morning and evening.

Ds1 was happy with either - go figure!

You needed better support - saying the latch is fine when it’s that painful means it’s not fine! Unfortunately most healthcare workers are clueless about breastfeeding.
Its possible to relactate if that’s something you want to do?
For future babies I would find qualified help (IBCLC level) if you have difficulties. Second time around apparently you make more milk - but the latch is key, that’s what builds supply and stops any pain.