Nipple sheilds

[xQuinnx]

My daughter is 3 weeks old and it is so hit and miss for her to latch on that 95% of her feeds are expressed breast milk or formula. We went to a specialist a few days ago and she said my daughter has a tongue tie and we are waiting for an appointment to get this looked at. In the meantime to try abd help get her to the breast she suggested using a nipple shield with the future hope of weaning my daughter off them.

Has anyone got any experience with these?
If so any idea on how to know if it's fitted right? The specialist advised me to get a small, I got a small and a medium and the medium seems huge but when I out the small on it seemed to pinch my nipple at the side and part of the skin turned white for a few seconds! :-/

 

[noon_child]

I'm sure there must be YouTube videos about how to correctly size and fit nipple shields. There's vids about practically everything!

 

[xQuinnx]

I've had a look and found loads on how to out them on...still fiddly as hell but not really how to know if it's the right fit :-/

 

[Amygdala]

I'd go by your own comfort and by how well baby latches. If she can drink with the medium in place, I'd go for that, just as long as it fits snugly enough to not let in air.
I had to use shields with both of mine btw, and managed to wean them at 8 and 12 weeks respectively and then continued feeding without any issues until 13 months. Doesn't need to be a problem.

 

[xQuinnx]

Thank you, good to hear weaning is very possible!
I've had a go with a small and a medium shield, small seemed better. Still not very successful, little one only latched/sucked briefly and then came off but guess it's a start!

 

[wish4baby]

We recently got rid of the shield (thank goodness!)
My little boy was born at 36 weeks & struggled to get a good latch. I'd never heard of a shield but they gave me one in the hospital (a small, but I didn't know there were sizes). I never had any pain with it though!
It was a life saver and he became addicted lol. I bought 2 more (that's when I discovered sizes, but stuck w a small since it was working). We breastfed exclusively with the shield...but it became a huge pain - losing them, popping over his nose, remembering them on outings and at night, etc.
Around his actual due date I was completely fed up & tried taking it away. He could nurse without them, but he would get so mad, so I'd always give in. About 2 weeks later, when he hit 10 pounds & was sleeping well (I was more rested too), I just ditched them completely. It took maybe 4-5 feeds of him sucking for a bit, then screaming, but eventually he forgot about the shield & just nursed! Now he's almost 10 weeks and all is great!!! So my advice is - it may be hard but if baby CAN eat w/o, just throw them away and weather the storm so worth it!