Crappy latch all of a sudden

jenb_99 · June 2014

DD is 3 and a half weeks, and suddenly her latch has regressed. She's back to sucking on as little of the nipple as possible, and she pulls and flattens it so at the end of a feeding session my nipple is long and chisel tipped like a flathead screwdriver. Needless to say, it's painful and makes feedings take longer. Oddly enough, it's worse at night.

Her tongue and lips are free (no ties), I'm never overly engorged and my letdown isn't any stronger now than it was 3 weeks ago, and nothing has changed as far as positioning, etc. I can't figure it out.

Is anyone else having to deal with latch issues popping up this late? What are you doing to improve the situation? I would call for a LC consult, but my insurance doesn't pay for it now that we're out of the hospital and I don't have anywhere for DS to go while I'm there. And honestly I never found the LCs all that helpful anyway when I was having trouble feeding DS.

Could a growth spurt encourage poor feeding habits? That's all I can think of, considering her age.

We were doing so well up to this point. I'm tired and in pain and we're both frustrated.

usernewname · June 2014

D'S got lazy as I am calling it and I've been trying to fix our latch and positioning. The pain is improving but it's only for a few seconds at the initial latch. It's kinda got lazy again with this growth spurt.

Are you keeping on top of proper positioning? Could also be axons gain stronger suck. His suck got harder too so I'm attributing some of that too.

jenb_99 · June 2014

@florassecret I wouldn't say our positioning has ever been ideal, but it hasn't changed recently. Meaning it's probably pretty bad but no worse than it was before. Her suck has definitely gotten stronger, though, and so has her bite. Ow.

She does flail around quite a bit before she finally latches on the right. So maybe it is a positioning thing after all? Hmm...

ho11yday · June 2014

Maybe she's gotten bigger? My midwife suggested that due to DS2's growth, I may not be positioning him as well.

haylo33 · June 2014

I notice DS has a terrible time latching when he is tired or is still waking up. He will get halfway on then rip himself on. Sometimes it takes 5 minutes to latch him properly. It also doesn't help that he tries to grab everything with his hands

usernewname · June 2014

haylo33 said:

I notice DS has a terrible time latching when he is tired or is still waking up. He will get halfway on then rip himself on. Sometimes it takes 5 minutes to latch him properly. It also doesn't help that he tries to grab everything with his hands

This is us. I never thought it was a tired thing maybe. I know my left side isn't his favourite whether its not coming fast enough or something.

He's growing, so thats the main thing, I'm hoping with time and growth and patience it will all be fine.

apinkpelican · June 2014

Have you introduced a bottle or pacifier recently?
Edited: spelling

usernewname · June 2014

@kellyq116 I haven't ... maybe jen_b has

no changes on my end but a growing hungry boy.

momthatlifts · June 2014

Dd is getting lazy too. Also, I can tell she is getting frustrated with it because she shakes her head at my nipple, scrunches her face and starts breathing really heavy. Her suck feels "lighter" too, like she's just sucking to soothe.

Lild09 · June 2014

Ds seems to always latch funny on my left breast recently so I just keep re latching bc man it kills! He's just about 5 weeks

caballo718 · June 2014

I noticed DS latch is poor during night feedings and I think it's because he falls asleep and sometimes my let down is strong at night because he doesn't eat as frequently. I just keep pulling him off and redoing the latch.

jenb_99 · June 2014

@KellyQ116 said:
Have you introduced a bottle or pacifier recently?
Edited: spelling

Nope. We're waiting till one month to introduce a bottle, and she's never taken a pacifier.

Junebug060609 · June 2014

With my DS I had to periodically correct his latch. The worst was a slacker stint at 4 months. Like all the rest of us, sometimes they get complacent and need to be reminded of the right way.

iqwedding3 · June 2014

I had this pop up at 3 weeks, I'm not sure what caused it, but I went to a LC and she corrected my technique, all good. I think DD might have been getting heavier, or squirmier or something, I just needed to do a better job.

On a side note, under ACA health insurance is required to cover breastfeeding consults for the first year. So you might want to double check on that.

Nmooney1 · June 2014

I am so wxhausted, that I can't type a full response. In short...I've been there. Read this article about Suck Training. Seems too easy to work but it did for DD. When she had a bad latch, I take her off and use my finger. As soon as she gets it right, I put her back on.
GL.

https://www.justbreastfeeding.com/sore-nipple-management/suck-training-tool-breastfed-baby/

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