Getting a 9 mo to latch?

[sillysapling]

I've had breast surgery that makes BFing difficult. It's a miracle I'm able to produce anything (my nipples were literally removed and grafted back on, but still able to produce a little milk!), and the most I've ever managed is maybe a mouthful, so even if our baby had latched at birth we still would have been feeding formula while BFing. Although I was told during pregnancy that I could BF with an at-breast supplementer, when the baby was born suddenly no one could be bothered helping us. The midwives didn't even give me the chance to BF our baby after the birth, the lactation consultant told us to give up and yelled at us for "starving" our baby by trying (I think she was angry we did a home birth, our baby was passing meconium well, lots of wet diapers, healthy weight, etc)- but we were new parents so terrified that we were hurting our baby and did give up for awhile. We tried to get our baby to latch from 1 mo to 5 mo, but he really just didn't get the idea and only got upset. A different lactation consultant we spoke to said that at the age he was, we needed to get rid of his negative associations with being at the breast before we had any hope of BFing, which took time.

Even though it's been 9 months without BFing, I'm still "lactating" a little (just a drop at a time doesn't sound like I should call it that), and lately my chest has started aching when our baby cries or when our baby is nursing from the bottle on my chest. Our baby's been very clingy, and it'd be nice to be able to nurse him when he needs comfort. Even though it'd still be with formula, there are still benefits of breastfeeding beyond nutritive ones, and he'll still be getting a little breast milk.

I have heard of people getting an older baby to start breastfeeding, but if anyone has experience or advice, I'd love to hear it.

(for one thing: I'm a bit scared of those teeth! Yikes!)