Shallow latch and pumping question

[Whatme]

my little lady is 10 days old today, we had latch problems in the first few days, this caused massive damage to my nipples, her latch is much better now, but I need my nipples to heal properly, but now she cluster feeding, and they are not getting chance to heal. Can I pump for 12 hours say, to give them a rest, and feed her via the bottle. They are hurting now, just thinking about feeding!
Any advice would be appreciated

 

[LiLi2]

With a baby with latch issues, I wouldn't bottle feed just yet unless absolutely necessary. Has she had a bottle yet? I don't know the extent of the damage to your nipples, but if they are very very bad, it is an option. However, be prepared that putting baby on the bottle so early could worsen the latch or create a preference for the bottle nipple. That being said, the breastfeeding relationship has to be a two way street and if you are in too much pain and unable to heal, that becomes priority.

Mother love makes a great nipple cream. I use the diaper rash and thrush cream for cracked nipples to avoid getting thrush, which can be easy to contract with nipple damage. You'll want to apply between feedings. It's safe for baby, too. Get those nipples healed up!

If you do decide to pump and bottle feed, look up "paced bottle feeding" and apply that technique. That will help her not form a preference for the fast, easy flow of the bottle and not want to work at the breast for her milk.

Hugs mama, way to push through a difficult start. It can be so hard!

 

[Whatme]

Thank you so much for replying, I'm going to look for that cream now! My nipples are a mess, I didn't have any help in starting off, so only have videos to help me, I guess it's harder than it looked. I'll persevere xx

 

[LiLi2]

Definitely see if you can get with a lactation consultant. You can call your OB and they may be able to recommend some resources for you.

You're a tough woman to have made it so far without help!

 

[vs011]

I fed my baby on breast for 1.5weeks, then had to start pumping and gave her bottle at 2 weeks. Time to time I test she still can take my breast and she does. So if you are worried that by introducing a bottle, your baby will never get on your breast again, it might not even be a problem. So I'd suggest go with a bottle for a little while, allow yourself to heal and give your baby the breast when you are ready again. I used slow flow nipples all the way and believe this helped my baby not develop a preference. There are nipple shields and creams/gels, but they only gave me temporary relief since feeding by breast only ramps up, doesnt slow down.

 

[pgfairy]

My LO and I had similar problems due to a tongue tie. With regards to feeding if your LO is still so small can I recommend you go to a pharmacy and get syringe and feed that way? It's not as easy as a bottle but we did this for almost a week and it's supposed to be better than introducing a different nipple.

Also get yourself some hydrogel pads for your nipples. Everything I read said that they should only take a day or so to heal and mine took WEEKS, but the hydrogel pads really sped things up and they felt so good!

 

[bmason]

Both of my kids had SERIOUS latching issues when they first started breastfeeding, it was so bad with my first (blood, pain, me crying) that I almost gave up. My savior for both kids was religiously applying lanolin oil to my nipples after each feed and using a nipple shield for a week or so (no problems whatsoever with nipple confusion) and makes bfing with cracked sore nipples not very painful. This combo helped heal my nipples pretty well in one day even and after a week was able to return to normal nursing. It saved me! And I was able to BF both kids for over a year each 😁 good luck! Breastfeeding is definitely tough!!

 

[noon_child]

So sorry to hear you have had so little help. Your nearest hospital should have an infant feeding team who are there to support you up to 28 days post partum. There is also excellent help available from LLL (La Leche League) and NCT, so I'd give them a call to see if they have any local volunteers who can come out to visit you, or local drop in groups. A lot of local councils have breastfeeding support groups which can be of great help, so it's worth Googling that too.

My LO wasn't latching well at first and I too syringe fed for the first 16-17 days. Paced bottle feeding is great advice too.

If your nipples take more than 3 days to heal with a lanolin cream (like lansinoh), it might suggest that the latch is still not quite right, so the damage is still being done.

Pumping when LO is cluster feeding is a tricky one as it is difficult to know how often to pump. Cluster feeding is baby's way of increasing supply but pumping could cause over or under supply. However we must do what we must to preserve the breastfeeding relationship, so if it is only for one day then it will have less impact on supply. It is amazing how much healing can happen in just a day of not having a baby chomping on them.