Need some help...

[Little_C]

Sophie's 16 days old now and we've been combination feeding since she was born. When we got home from the hospital I was having real trouble getting her to latch on so we used a few bottles, and since then we've been using nipple shields for most of the feeds (because she was making me really sore) and then a couple of bottle feeds a day.
The nipple shields were great to start with but the last few days I've been really, really sore and when I spoke to the HV today she said she thinks the nipple shields are making the problem worse. After getting really upset over being so sore yesterday I was questionning whether to continue BF or not, but I've decided that I definitely want to keep going after trying for this long. Only problem is that Sophie seems to be suffering with confusion. She won't latch on without the nipple shields and just gets really frustrated and starts crying so much that we don't get anywhere (much like she did the first couple of days of trying to BF before we started using the nipple shields).

Does anyone have any advise on things I can try to get her to latch on properly? I've tried the normal holding her belly to belly and getting nose to nipple, also tried us both lying on our sides and tried the rugby hold and she still seems to struggle with all of them. I'm also not sure how I should go about it all because after 2 hours of trying to get her to latch on earlier (it was only an hour and a half after her previous feed so I'm not starving her!! But she had started to search a little for food) I gave up and gave her a bottle of expressed milk as she was getting too frustrated and I didn't want to stress her out too much and make her think I wasn't going to feed her. Is that the right thing to do or should I keep persevering?

 

[leighbaby]

i dont have any advice, sorry, but it is hard and frustrating, dont lose heart.

 

[Mervs Mum]

It sounds like classic nipple confusion. She knows that if she waits long enough she will get the bottle. It's so much easier than having to work for her food - she's a smart cookie!

I was in a similar situation to you minus the nipple shields but plus a dummy. At day 10 we went to a BF support group and saw a LC (HVs are not often trained in BFing) who said we needed to go back to basics. Babies have to learn how to BF just was we do. I'm afraid the soreness you described is usually just part of the deal. Your nips have to toughen up and that will only happen by sucking it up (pun intended ) and just persevering through the pain. We ditched the top ups, ditched the dummy, ditched the pumping and settled in to the hard slog. About 12 hours in when she was crying and wouldnt latch, I was begging my hubby to get me a bottle for her. But he knew how much I wanted to crack BFing so he took her and walked up and down with her for an hour or how ever long she cried for. I applied lots of Lansinoh, took a break, bathed and then started over. We never topped up again and of course within 2 days my supply had adjusted and she was back on the boob.

It really depends how much you want to exclusively BF. It was very important for me at the time. I've used formula since and we managed to use bottles etc and even went back to the dummy for a few months, although that's gone now too. But in the first few weeks if you introduce other things to suck you run this risk. Imagine being given a pair of chopsticks to eat with and just as you are starting to suss them you get a knife and fork.....then someone says 'oh you can use your hands now'.....then 'actually no, can you go back to the chopsticks please??' Eventually you'll shove the chopsticks up someones arse.....

Hang in there honey. You have come a long way already - your milk is in and you just need some fine tuning

x

 

[Little_C]

Thanks Mervs Mum. I was beginning to wonder whether she'd ever go back again. Will definitely be giving it a good go over the next couple of days and hopefully Sophie will crack it soon. I'm planning on going down to my local breastfeeding clinic on Wednesday so if we've not cracked it by then hopefully they can check my positioning, etc, and help us out. I really am determined to get BF to work so fingers crossed we can do it

 

[Mervs Mum]

It's very much about believing in yourself hun and support from your OH comes in handy too.

I can look back now and say 'oh it only took 2 or 3 days to get to exclusive BFing' but when you are in the thick of those 3 days it's reeeeally hard. So if you feel like giving up dont feel bad - I did too and now look at me 8 months down the line

x