Breastfeeding problems…good bottle to use?
My daughter’s latch was great, but now she’s just sucking on he nipple, causing me great pain/cracking. I’m working on solving the problem. In the meantime, it would be nice to give her a bottle every now and then and give my poor breasts a chance to heal.
But I’m worried that the way she’d suck on a bottle would encourage her bad habit of sucking just on the nipple, not getting the whole breast in her mouth. I was thinking about trying those bottles that look like a big round breast instead of a traditional bottle.
Does anyone have suggestions or ideas on this?
Thanks so much!
If she already has a bad latch, giving her a bottle will NOT help. Since the bottle is a different way of sucking, it will make it so that she continues to latch badly and it will continue to hurt you (so your own instinct is correct.)
Trust me, I have been there. I had to give up bottles completely for several weeks until my baby corrected his latch.
I agree with the suggestion to use a nipple shield–temporarily only!–because it can help protect an extremely damaged nipple. You need to be careful because a nipple shield can cause your milk supply to drop. It’s best not to use anything, but if you absolutely have to, a nipple shield is preferable to a bottle.
I’m intrigued by the wording in your question that says you’re working on solving the problem: really either baby is latched correctly or she’s not. You need to immediately remove her and try again (I remember trying half a dozen times before I’d get it right for a single feed.) Make sure you’re using a pinky finger to break her latch, not just pulling her off, as that can damage the nipple more.
A bottle really will just prolong the problem. Either get to the lactation consultant to get it fixed now, or keep working on it. The *minute* you have a good latch the pain reduces and it takes only a couple days of good nursing latch to eliminate the pain entirely.
ETA: I agree with Stacy B! I used one of those contraptions, a supplemental nursing system (SNS.) I would have recommended it here, but it doesn’t sound like baby needs a supplement, she just needs to learn how to latch.
breastfeeding problems