Speaking of BF, explain latch problems to me

whitney1170

FTM w/inside baby, so bear with me! I've taken a few BF classes, and watched videos, and they make latching look super easy. BUT, it seems that latching is one of the biggest problems, at least at first.

Why is this? What is the "problem" exactly?

Stellasmom

They baby doesn't automatically know how to do it, and the Mom doesn't automatically know how to shove her nipple in the baby's mouth right to encourage a good latch.

I was fortunate to have good luck with DD latching right away, but even now (three weeks later) she still has days where she will latch and unlatch 10 times when she first starts feeding. It gets frustrating.

Also, some women have nipples that are harder for a baby to latch onto.

measrn

My problem was getting DS to open wide enough. If he didn't, he would end up sucking on just part of my nipple. Not only could he not get milk, but it would hurt   The LC showed me how to "sandwich" my breast to help get a deeper latch

whitney1170

I was just thinking, I bet all the videos were of babies with zero problems, have their mouths open wide and long enough...all that.

Thank you ladies!

Suesse2009

whitney1170:

I was just thinking, I bet all the videos were of babies with zero problems, have their mouths open wide and long enough...all that.

Thank you ladies!

Yeah one day in the hospital I told my baby that she didn't latch on like the babies in the videos :-)  Our issue was that she wasn't opening her mouth wide enough.  I did get sores on my nipples which took a while to heal so it hurt to breastfeed for a while even when she was latching on correctly.  Things are a lot better now though.  

EllenK11

My nipples are too flat and wide for LO to latch on to well.  I am using nipple shields which have been wonderful.  LO was having a really hard time and it can still take a couple of times to latch on. 

I also thought that BF'ing would come to me and LO naturally, but we did need a little help and the LC at my ped's office is wonderful.  She told me that alot of people need help with BF'ing and it is normal to get frustrated and upset but to keep up with it and it will get better

vstevens

I was also surprised how much you have to kind of "jam" your boob into the baby's mouth - it's not a very gentle process (at least when the LC was doing it - I tend to be a little softer with him, but that also means he sometimes takes a few tries to latch properly).

amdraza

We didn't have too many problems with latching, but at first DS didn't want to open his mouth wide enough, so he wasn't taking the nipple far enough back into his mouth. The LC had me guide his chin down while putting him to the breast, but that is really hard when one hand is holding your breast and the other is supporting LO's head. At first the nurses had to do it for me, but once I got the hang of it (and DS realized that he needed to open wide to get milk) it fell into place.

We still have to try a few times when he is really sleepy or very hungry. You just have to be patient, which is hard sometimes.