Do I Taste Bad?

LMB1231

Baby girl is 3 days old and seemed to have a good suck reflex from the get go. Since then breast feeding has been very up and down. She seems to always be hungry and makes these crazy hungry open mouth attempts around my nipple but then declines it. I can't figure out what is wrong. She knows where the nipple is, she knows how to suck (can suck very well on my finger) but seems to not want the nipple itself. I'm so engorged right now and its so painful.

 ETA: I just started dripping today so not sure if that means my milk is fully in now or not. 

sadsadie

Get in touch with a lactation consultant; baby might be having a latch issue that needs help. Also, some babies Come off the breast easily and need practice/encouragement. 

In the meantime, you might want to hand-express or pump a bit to ease your discomfort and keep your supply up.  

shotzie

Express some milk onto your nipple to help entice her to the breast. Also, spend lots of time doing skin to skin with her. If your breast is engorged, it can be hard for LO to latch on, so you can hand express to soften the breast and then try to latch her on. If LO isn't nursing, you can hand express or pump small amounts and feed her via oral syringe or spoon, if you don't want to introduce a bottle yet. Contacting an LC would be helpful. You can also go to the LLL website and find a phone number for a local leader, who you can call to speak with. 

judahsmommy1

It sounds like your milk came in and she's having a hard time figuring out how to latch onto your areola since your breast has a different firmness to it now. I know it's really hard and stressful when your baby is crying to keep trying and not feel like you're about to lose it, but this stage is actually very short. (Even though it feels like it lasts for forever!) She will learn to latch and the engorgement will go down and make life easier for both of you. If you need to you can hand express or pump a little right before you feed her to soften your breast a little and bring out the nipple.

For now, as she's trying to latch, just keep talking to her calmly, encouraging her to keep trying. The talking is for you as much as it is for her. I find that if I vocalize encouragement and focus on speaking calmly to my son, it helps me feel like I'm doing something productive and keeps me from getting frustrated and emotional. It also reminds me that all I have to do in the moment is to keep trying to help him latch. It will happen eventually. Keep a burp cloth or flannel receiving blanket near by to dry the two of you off if you get milk on you... it can make your breast a lot more slippery and complicate things further. Another option, can be to try different positions. Sometimes my son would have a hard time latching in the cross cradle position, I would switch to football and he would latch immediately. Other times we'd start in football and he'd latch as soon as we switched to cross cradle. It might have just been the "reset button" that we needed. Take deep breaths and remember that this too shall pass.

[Deleted User]

I agree with everything PPs said. We had trouble with latching in the beginning and I think it had a lot to do with positioning. Something that helped us was I would lean back a little and lay DS vertical on my chest so his head was near my chin. I'd just relax and let him root around and bob his way down to my breast. I'd support him as needed but he basically got himself into a comfortable position and would latch on. I remember one time when I'd been struggling to position him and started to give up and suddenly it seemed he just fell on my boob and latched on.
You'll get the hang of it, just keep trying. GL!