Gaah! Another bad latcher :'(

[Ruth 1980]

Some of you might remember me from being here before with my dd1 (who had real problems latching and I ended up feeding her with nipple shields for the first 10months, then without. Fed her for 16.5 months altogether)
Well dd2 was born (almost 48hrs ago) and I'm still in hospital. Her latch is appalling! She won't open her mouth more than a fraction and is consequently only taking the nipple in it is absolute agony every feed. My hands are covered in bite marks from where I'm biting them to avoid crying with the pain of it.
I've tried the following:
Stroking the nose and top lip with the nipple
Hand expressing a bit onto her lip to get her to open wider
Football-hold position
Laid-back feeding position
Regular cross-body hold
Side-lying
Pulling down her chin
Squashing up the areola and guiding more of it into her mouth (she hates me doing that, cries and pulls away!)

What else can I do to get her to open her mouth wide and feed on the breast NOT just the nipple?? Please help x

 

[CandyDay]

Some good tips here that you can try.

https://kellymom.com/bf/concerns/child/back-to-breast/

If you have your LO naked except diaper and you shirtless. Put her on you near the breast and see if she can get on by herself with no help from you. Try and relax as much as you can.

 

[Wolfie]

I'm trying to get my LO to breast feed and not nipple feed- it's hard!
Just wondering if your LO(s) have been checked for tongue tie? My DS1 had a severe one which I pointed out in hospital (having never seen one before) but the Dr said it was nothing. Turned out he dropped dish the weight gain charts before a health visitor it spotted it and we had it snipped it 6 1/2-7 weeks. My DS2 ( a week old today!) had his 75-80% Tongue tie snipped two days ago. All the midwives agreed he had one but was told to see how breastfeeding went and did discouraged from joining the NHS waiting list. We we t privately.

 

[calliebaby]

You could take baby to a cranial sacral therapist. Sometimes due to trauma from birth, it can cause it to be hard to open their mouth fully.

 

[patch2006uk]

Hello and congratulations on your new little one! You beat me by a day in the end!

Isaac had a horrible latch and I really struggled to get him to open his mouth wide, too. I usually had to wait until he got quite upset with me and started to cry, just so he would open his mouth a little bit. Persisting until he got bigger was the eventual cure, but I found wearing shells between feeds and salt water rinsed were the best for healing. Also YouTube has videos showing different tricks for latching a reluctant feeder-the hamburger hold for your boob, or the 'flipple'.

Hope you're getting sorted and settled x

 

[kerrie24]

Google "breastfeeding latch trick",helped me with a tongue tied baby.