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Help with a bad latch!

buggywhipsbuggywhips member
in Breastfeeding
LO has a very shallow latch and also likes to tuck his bottom lip inside his mouth.  The LC's I have seen have shown me various ways to 'fix' it-pulling out the lip or breaking his latch and having him re-latch correctly.  They worked the first couple of times but now when I try to pull out his bottom lip he just clamps down harder and when I break his latch he gets mad and when he re-latches it's pretty painful, and usually still not correct.  If by chance he does latch correctly he is very adamant about pulling his head back to get to the tip of my nipple.  Anything else I can try to help him (and me) with this?
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Re: Help with a bad latch!

  • GooberlinaGooberlina
    I'm not going to be that much help but I am in the same boat. My son has been like that from day one and he's now 4 weeks old :( I've had mastitis three times because of his shallow sucking. Eventually he started to do what is called blanching and the tip of my nipple will be white and edged. He breaks the skin constantly because of forcing my nipple out to get just the tip. We have our good days and our bad days. I recommend preparing to pump a lot. Also the slow drip small platex nipples worked to help when he uses a bottle. The are small and hard so he can't push them in or out to get the tip. Good luck it's been a roller coaster of emotional and painful misery. 
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  • hlc820hlc820
    imageGooberlina:
    I'm not going to be that much help but I am in the same boat. My son has been like that from day one and he's now 4 weeks old :( I've had mastitis three times because of his shallow sucking. Eventually he started to do what is called blanching and the tip of my nipple will be white and edged. He breaks the skin constantly because of forcing my nipple out to get just the tip. We have our good days and our bad days. I recommend preparing to pump a lot. Also the slow drip small platex nipples worked to help when he uses a bottle. The are small and hard so he can't push them in or out to get the tip. Good luck it's been a roller coaster of emotional and painful misery. 
    OMG this is me!  My LO has shallow latch, is four weeks old and i get the blanching often.  He has such a strong suck but on nipple tip i think because my flow is so fast and forceful he is trying to slow it down.  I have tried everything short of a shield which the LC had me try once and it HURT.  Maybe its worth trying again as im scared to get nerve damage.  I have been weaning off my motrin 800 from labor and now i really feel the nipple pain more.....i thought it was better but it was really the ibuprofin covering it up
    image

    Lilypie - (ovfd)

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  • GooberlinaGooberlina
    The pain I experienced using the nipple shield was UNBEARABLE! I think a shallow latch and a bad latch are two different things. I start the latch out just fine but he does everything he can to get the tip where he wants it. I seemed off of pain. Ed's but this last time me doctor felt so bad for me he put me on Percocet. I wasted, cracked, bleeding, swollen and infected. I cried everytime I had to nurse and I realized I don't want to be his miserable for the first few months of my babies life so u pump all day and only nurse a little at night to still enjoy that calming bond and to keep my supply up. Also, I've found that when I'm almost empty at night ge doesn't cause the blanching and the pain is much more tolerable. Just be careful with the shield but try it because each boob is different. 
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