7 week old biting

[Nicolalove353]

I am really trying to stick with breast feeding but my nipple hurts so bad! My son bites my left nipple while he nurses. I find myself biting my tongue to get through 10-15 minutes of nursing in that side. He also wiggles around while nursing and pulls back on my nipple like I am stretch Armstrong or something. Is there anything I can do to get him to stop biting? My right boob usually is not a problem and as of lately it has not hurt much at all. But my left one, it kills me!

I am also supplementing formula and I would really like to start cutting down the bottles he gets. Ilhe usually gets 5 bottles a day and I have cut down to 4 and now trying to cut down to 3. I don't understand how he nurses before I give him the bottle and then he will take 6oz of formula. The times I don't nurse him I still give him 6 oz and he is satisfied. Shouldn't he drink less if I nurse him before? I feel like I will never be able to ebf because my milk does not satisfy him. It is really depressing and I feel like a failure. I am going to set up an appointment with a lactation specialist so I hope I can get more help there.

We have gotten so much better with nursing since he was born. I will have a short period that my boobs don't hurt and I will try and nurse him more but then my nipples start to kill me. I get vasospasm and my nipples sometimes are flat so I know there is still latch problems but I don't know how to fix them.

I love nursing him and I really want to continue. I have no plans on quoting anytime soon but I wish it would get easier and less painful.

 

[BunnyN]

It sounds like you are doing great! If you keep at it it will get easier. You may need to wean off the bottles gradually and let him be a little hungry sometimes in order to build your supply. Your body won't make more milk until the baby asks for it, the baby won't ask for it until it's hungry.

I had to laugh at the stretch Armstrong thing, that describes it perfectly, my LO did that too. She did it over and over again until it really hurt. I did a few things with limmited success and eventually she just stopped doing it. The things that helped a bit were to hold her in a way that she couldn't pull her head all the way back, sometimes that worked but other times she'd just get upset. She seemed to do it when she had a gassy tummy so frequent burping helped. She also seemed to do it when she was fustrated the flow wasn't fast enough and breast compression was definitely a good thing for us. I tried breaking the latch with my finger before she pulled all the way back but it was hard to be quick enough. I also tried not letting he relatch for a few seconds after which made her mad as a hornet but did discourage her a bit from doing it so often. When all else failed I tried to just ignore it and distract myself with something else to take my mind off it. My nipples got somewhat used to it after a while and she rarely does it anymore.

 

[Nicolalove353]

I keep wanting to spend a day in bed with him just breast feeding but it hurts too much. I went to a lactation specialist right after he was born and that helped some. I have since moved and I am trying to find one to go to. I will prob hold off trying to really wean him off the bottles until I meet with them.

I hope he will grow out of pulling my nipple! It hurts so much but it is funny because I just imagine stretch...I don't think he is really gassy when he does it. I rarely ever get burps out of him when he nurses, only when I give him a bottle. I am worried that he is not getting enough milk which could be the cause but I feel milk coming out and I see him swallowing. Just last night and today it seems like he really isn't getting much milk .

 

[BunnyN]

I did find she did the stretch thing less in the side lying position so you could try that. One thing I found comforting is that if she could pull that far back and maintain her latch then I was pretty sure there was nothing wrong with her latch.

 

[noon_child]

It could be that you have a faster flow on one side than the other and if LO is used to bottles the "slow" side will make him frustrated as he has to work hard to get it, so he will bite down and pull trying to get it to come out faster. Breast compressions help with this but it can be uncomfortable maintaining it throughout a whole feed. Switching breasts once he is frustrated and then switching back again when calmer could help, or seeing if the rugby hold would "trick" him in to thinking he's on his favoured side.

Re: reducing the bottles, if he has a 6oz bottle and is full then don't offer 6oz after a breast feed. You are aiming for him to feed MORE regularily from your breasts in order to boost your supply. If he's too full this will not happen. If he's screaming after a breast feed try offering 2oz at a time on quite a slow teat. If he's just a bit grizzly you could see if 1oz does the trick, or if you are really determined to cut down the bottles even distracting him with a walk or a book or something for 30-45mins and then offer the breast again.

It took about 10 or 11 weeks for my LO to stop flattening my nipples with her bad latch, and I was in so much distress, but she just needed to grow in to it (she was v.small) but once we got there we never looked back (made it to 28 months). Good luck.