Latching help

Lansnol (sp) is good Rach you can get it from the chemist it's in a purple tube it's around $8 it's good cause you don't have to wipe it off when it's time to feed it's basically lanoline I found it great.

Sorry don't have any tips for the latching on though.

If your nipples are really sore in the early days hand express a few drops so the baby doesn't have to suck really hard to get the milk flowing. Sometimes a nipple shield can be good for a few days to give your nipples a chance to heal.

make sure baby has "special K mouth" lips shaped like the k bit onthe cereal box, make sure her nipples/boob is "triangle" shape and shs'e holding it like a hamburger and when babys mouth is wide open like special k, stuff boob in, make sure areola is in as well. If baby dosen't latch properly, take off IMMEDIATELY and re latch, baby won't learn if she lets him (?) feed incorrectly. Get her to ring the hospital and get int ouch with a lactation cinsultant or even plunket, and get her to do it before she gives up. ALso Nipple sheilds are great, and it's easy enoughto wean them off them. Good luck!!

The thing I found helped the best is kind of squeezing my areola/nipple (this is going to be quite hard to explain!) so that its oval shape, rather than round- so that more gets in the babys mouth. If Mum puts her hand under her breast and squeezes from there so that when she is looking down at her breast her areola/nipple is the same shape as babies mouth- tickle bubs top lip with her nipple and when baby opens his/her mouth stuff as much in as possible and hold it there- supporting the back of babies head with the other hand.

To unlatch baby if she hasn't got it right, stick her little finger in the side of bubs mouth to release the pressure rather than just pulling out.

Get her to use a breast feeding pillow so she isn't worrying about holding baby as well- she can concentrate on the latching part. Lasinoh is BRILLIANT stuff and those cooling gel pads are great too.

Not much that I can add. But when I had issues with Daniels latching the lactation consultant (who was soooo lovely) told me to do as much skin to skin contact as possible. So everytime he was awake he would be stripped down and placed under my top on my boobs. It's weird to think that it would help but it probably helped some of his natural instincts kick in a bit.

Thanx everyone she has the lansinoh and im picking her up some sheilds on the way over. she has been expressing a bit to give her nipples a break so hopefully we manage to get it sorted. she lives in Rangiora so the hospital there is pretty average. Will any lactation people come to her? She doesn't have a license

Well I managed to show her how to latch on properly yay and she just text me saying it doesn't hurt now.

I just have to say tho i'm appalled at the care she has gotten with breastfeeding. She got given all these hand outs about how great breastfeeding is which is good but she was never shown or helped. She asked for help and the nurse came in and looked at her and said it looked like she was latched ok and there are pamphlets in the other room if she needed anymore help They do a great big guilt trip if you even consider bottle feeding but don't help at all to get breastfeeding right

I'm glad all is going well. I was going to add if the pain persisted (like I had for 3 months!!!) could it be thrush??? I had to take anti-biotics after my birth (which I think killed all the good/bad bugs) and left me with horrendous painful nipples due to thrush.....also my baby struggled to latch properly for the first 3 months due to a sunken in chin.....had to wait till she gained weight...which took a very long time....now she latches great. I nearly gave up at 3 weeks and now am approaching the 4 month mark. Tell her to stick with it....honestly the first 3 months a really hard BF.....well in my opinion they are.

And I TOTALLY agree with you that there is a lack of help....everyone seems to brush you off and say you're doing it right....when clearly as a mum you can feel its not right. Feel free to PM me if you need more support.

go Rach!!!

Also for cracked nipples I totally recommend nipple shields. They also help the baby latch properly and give your nipps a damn good rest as they are protected by the latex!

I used nipple shields for a month and after that never had anymore problems with sore nipples!!