Question about BFing- copied from breastfeeding board

MeredithS02

My daughter is one month old and was born 6 weeks early.  We have continued the routine that we were on when she was at the hospital.  I breastfeed for 30min to an hour whenever she is hungry (every 3-4 hours) with a breast shield and she is still hungry so she takes anywhere from 2-4 ounces of fortified breast milk by bottle after.  I then pump after this.  My questions are: how can I transition from using the nipple shield?  She latched on correctly when she was first born but now does not.  I am not sure why they introduced the shield- I think because she was not eating enough fast enough.  I am also wondering how I can transition to her mainly eating from the breast?  I feel like she spends so much time on the breasts but then is so hungry after.  I know I have enough of a supply because I pump after.  This is all so new to me and so extremely confusing.  TIA for any advice!!! 

Wally3

If she is still hungry after eating it maybe because she is not getting enough milk with the shield.  I would latch her for a few minutes with the shield and then unlatch and remove the shield and try to relatch.  I went and saw a lc when transitioning from the shield and she helped a lot in the 1 sessions and gave me a lot of tips and tricks.  It took about 3 weeks after that to be totally off the shield.  Also, the lc also told me it would be difficult until ds head was bigger than my boob and she was right it got a lot easier once he got bigger and my boobs evened out and got smaller.

annie145

I have since switched to expressing milk/formula feeding and only using a bottle, but when my girls came home I was still attempting to breast feed.  My pediatrician suggested that I work them up to full feeds from the breast by only having them eat for 5-10 minutes w/o nipple shield and then following up with a bottle of breastmilk. That way, if they just played around instead of actually latching, they would still get fed, but also get practice on the breast.  She cautioned me that it would probably take a week to get them on without the shield.  I didn't make it that long so I don't know if that is right, but I do think that it takes some time!