Does this sound like latch issues?

[Elliebank]

Ethan has been a fussy feeder right from the word go. The only time you can guarantee he will have a good feed is through the night. He rarely stays on the breast from beginning to end, he will latch on, have a few sucks and then come off (sending milk squirting everywhere). Sometimes we have crying when he comes off, sometimes he just messes with the nipple, putting it in his mouth but not latching on. He will do this even if it is obvious he is really hungry, and then he just ends up screaming as he is hungry but not feeding! I must admit I have probably been lazy with his latch and dont wait till he opens his mouth really wide, but I thought it was ok as my nipples haven't been hurting and he's putting weight on. I am now concentrating on his latch and only bringing him to the breast if he opens his mouth really wide. It does seem to be helping and he's staying on, but that could just be cos he's finally given in and his having his feed before bed (every night is a battle where he is obviously starving but won't feed properly, until eventually he will stop on)

Any tips for teaching him a good latch and do you think there are any other issues I need to be looking at?

 

[summer rain]

You could be looking at two issues here, one is you may have an overactive let down; this can lead babies to latch more shallow-ly (if thats a word lol) as it helps them to control the fast flow of milk, the other issue you may need to look into, is tongue tie xx

 

[Elliebank]

I wondered about Tongue tie actually, I'll google it now. He does stick his Tongue out though and I'm sure I remember reading that if they can stick it out far they won't have Tongue tie. I will look into it though thanks x

 

[summer rain]

I'm afraid that is one of the biggest myths associated with tongue tie, many of those with TT can stick their tongue out really far-I even saw a picture of one little boy where the tie was right on the tip of his tongue and he could still stick it out. My son is mild to moderately tongue tied (thankfully in our case its cosmetic and looks worse than it is) and he can stick his tongue out further than most people xx