breastfeeding help!

Speaking as a former LLL Leader, the basics have been hit:

--Talk to an IBCLC or call your local LLL Leader (1-800LALECHE will find her for you)
--It does indeed sound like a latch issue. The clicking is a dead give-away.

• **Definitely change positions if one way isn't working. (My babes did the football hold for the first couple of weeks just to make sure I could hold their heads exactly where they needed to be)
  **definitely express if she's too full. This is a great chance to create a freezer stash of EBM.

Another possibility is inverted/flat nipples. Click here for a helpful article on the subject.

--And continue to be very careful about introducing artificial nipples while baby is having latch problems. (There are ways to supplement that don't involve a bottles! A medicine dropper, or spoon, for example)
"Nipple confusion" is an inaccurate term, in my opinion. There is nothing whatsoever confusing about it. The baby figures out real quick that the bottle delivers milk much faster. It's nipple preference, not confusion.


In the history of mankind, I think there have been about 9 women who nursed their babies with no problems. The rest of us have hurdles to get over.
Most importantly, remember: The biggest indicator of breastfeeding success is Mom's determination that this will work. Continue to be supportive and hunt for information. You guys are doing great! Hang in there.

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~*~Erin~*~
SAHM, ranch wife, sub and quilt shop proprietress
the Back Gate Country Quilt Shop

After the baby has nursed put on a warm comfrey poultus. AKA comfrey leaf sanwhiched with gause dipped in warm water to moisten. It releaves all the pain and soothes. I have had 6 and my last homebirth midwife was the one who told me to use comfrey. Ummm good to know this now. Boys are far more agressive nursers. Nipple cream before to help the nipple slide back in his mouth further. Try not to wait till hes starving or else he will attack the nipple not just latch on. I had 2 that were nicknamed baricuda due to their latch on.

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I'm so done here.

The only thing I can add is to get teh baby to open up wide is to take the ariol (sp) between thumb and first finger to flatten it out and tickle the babies cheek with the nipple. That will make the baby open wide and then just pop the flattened nipple into the mouth. After a few seconds check the lower lip and roll down with the side of the thumb if its curled in, it should be visable.

I could never get the hang of the football position but boy oh boy, the sleeping position was loverly, the baby could nurse and I could SLEEP

Oh, a nursing pillow is a great thing, I used the heck out of mine for my three babies.

Congrats on the new littleun and you are a great dad to be looking for help for her, all three of you will get through this together.

Then all you have to worry about is teething LOL

i found that a couple of ice cubes in a ziplock baggie helped with soreness
for the first two weeks. I would express some milk as others have said and then let hte baby nurse, then put on the ice either a minute before and then nurse or for a minute after. My hubby was a huge help here because he knew i didn't want to use formula and that it would be better in short time. It took 2 weeks for me to not be sore at all.

Congratulations.

WOW! I can't thank you folks enough for all your great advice and all the help you offered to us as total strangers. After several unreturned calls to the hospitol for a "lactation consultant" I took your advice and call the LLL. Pretty much everything that was covered here (and believe me I read it all several times over) was what the La Leche rep told us. We met her at her house yesterday evening and she instantly identifed the problem as a bad latch and showed my wife how to make him latch correctly and even showed me how I could help.

Little Elijah was gumming mommy and we didnt quite have him positioned well as mentioned here. I was kinda scared the first time I watch the La Leche lady force his little face down onto mommy but it doesnt bother him one bit and he gets right down to business!

By this morning she said everything was a 100 times better and the stress is greatly reduced and the baby is doing great.

Thank you so much for the help, kind words, and encouragement everyone. We realy wanted to be able to do this for the health of both mom and baby and we have been realy blessed.

My wife, me and my little fat bellied baby boy say Thanks and God Bless!

So glad you got some hands on help. It is one thing to read and read but another to have someone show you. Great job asking and getting help. So many of my friends were so shy about it that things didn't go very well. I had twins first so being shy about it was NOT an option. Now get some rest!

So good to hear!
So many Moms have trouble at first, don't know where to go for help (or worse! get really bad advice) and end up quitting before they even get a chance to get going.
I'm glad she's over this first hump.

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~*~Erin~*~
SAHM, ranch wife, sub and quilt shop proprietress
the Back Gate Country Quilt Shop

Oh YIPEE Sooooo glad you could get someone to show you how, but you didnt half make me laugh, it is a bit of a shock when you see it done for the first time LOL

Thanks for letting us know, its nice to start the day with good news for a change

ive been following this thread and had nothing to add that wasnt already covered. soooo glad she got help and will be a happy nursing mommy now

I'm so happy that she and baby are doing better now! I just noticed this thread, but, as you can tell, she is not alone. Hopefully, knowing that there are so many others who have struggled, and are pulling for her (myself included!) will make her feel a little better. Congratulations on your beautiful baby!

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Melissa
Reformed hoyden. Please forgive me if I relapse.

YAY FOR LA LACHE LEAGUE!!!! They are awesome!

Hope your wife can attend their monthly meetings....she will meet other young mothers and make new friends that will last a lifetime!

I'm not going to read all the answers, so if someone already said this, just take it as reinforcement.

Tell your wife to put her finger in the baby's mouth and pull his tongue forward. He is sucking his tongue back and it needs to be under the nipple for him to eat. This is very common for a hungry baby. (I spent a few years working labor and delivery and newborn nursery.)

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I believe in God's willingness to heal.

Cyngbaeld's Keep Heritage Farm, breeding a variety of historical birds and LaMancha goats. (It is pronounced King Bold.)

Wonderful news SouthernThunder! Your wife is very lucky to have a husband on her side. So many women (including me) have the "just give him a bottle type". While I stuck it out many do not. Keep up the support and post a pic of you little one if you can, then again it might make some of us including me start to think about another addition of our own. lol

hang in there! haven't read all the posts, but enough to agree with all... you are engorged, pump a little to relieve that so baby can latch on. the pain is certianly not expected, no one tells you of that part!

also, there are these plastic disks that the hospital gave me with the first one (shes now 13) they looked like a shallow bowl with a pop on lid, the lid being very soft flexible and rubbery. it also had a hole for your nipple. you put nipple in the hole, and the 'bowl' part kept anything at all from touching your nipple, and it had air holes so they weren't smothered. these were a godsend, honestly the best thing anyone ever thought up! when i started goign somewhere, i would pack the lower portion of the bowl with paper towel to catch any milk that leaked. the bowl part was a harder plastic so my poor abused breats had some nice shields!

as a funny side note--no one told me about the huge clot that is passed after a c-section either...i went to the restroom for the first time after baby was born, and oh my gosh, i though for sure some vital organ just plopped in the toilet?!!! i was terrified!!! no, just a clot, quite normal...gee, would it have been too hard for someone to WARN me??!! geesh!!! ain't babies great?!!

CONGRATS tho on the little guy! pictures???

The things "They" dont tell you would fill quite a few books, oh my oh my lol

definitely agree there!

I don't know if this has been mentioned, but... I had one child that I had the same problem with. She got a good hold and was nursing proper, but she had an incredible suction. My nipples got sore and was cracked and bleeding. I thought I was going to have to quit nursing which just about made me heartsick. Finally I got a breast shield. Yup, it worked. It was much like the Gerber bottle nipples, but the base was wide like the nipples for the bottles with a disposable liner. Actually if you couldn't find a shield like that, those bottle nipples might work.

Now that I have posted all that, I will go back and read to see if you got the problem solved! lol

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LinderCroft

SouthernThunder... so glad you got the problem solved!

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LinderCroft

So glad to hear that mom and baby have gotten things figured out!

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Wags Ranch Nigerians


"The Constitution says to promote the general welfare, not to provide welfare!" ~ Lt. Col Allen West

if you are worried about how much he is getting weigh him before and after nursing with a baby scale. Most hospitals will rent them and the baby's Dr. should do it for free.

My first son was a premie and he was a lazy nurser. I didn't realize this as he was a first and when he left the hospital he was just given to me and told "have fun" OMG What were they thinking.

Because he was lazy ( didn't suck hard enough) he started loosing weight and the DR office noticed first. I made enough milk no problem but he just was not sucking hard enough so I was drying up.

I got a pump and formula fed him until I could produce more milk. I also gave him any milk I pumped. I pumped for 9 mos then he weaned himself. Thought it was a fluke but son #2 also weaned at 9 mos. and I did BF him solely "by the book". Keep your head up. Whatever you decide is right for you. Breastfeeding is NOT the end all beat all. My kids are not any smarter or any less allergic ( son#1 is peanut and pecan/walnut allergic) to things than formula fed kids. I could do something that DH couldn't ever do.

Breastfeeding is easier because it is always on tap, until they go through a growthy spurt and you are not nursing "often" but are "permenantly" attached until your body makes more milk! Some family members were mad at me as they could not help feed the babies. Not everyone can be happy.