How can I get my baby to open his mouth wider to latch on?
beckyritchie04 asked:
My son is 7 weeks old and still struggles with latching on at times. I have a hard time getting him to open his mouth wide enough to latch on without hurting me. I have tried waiting for him to open his mouth after I have touched his lip with my ****** but I could wait all day for him to open wide.
My son is 7 weeks old and still struggles with latching on at times. I have a hard time getting him to open his mouth wide enough to latch on without hurting me. I have tried waiting for him to open his mouth after I have touched his lip with my ****** but I could wait all day for him to open wide.
I think part of the problem is I have overactive letdown and an oversupply of milk….. so when he does latch on he gets flooded with milk. Because of this he tends to have a shallow latch so he can clamp down when letdown occurs. I have been to see a lactation consultant several times to help with this problem but nothing seems to work. I guess I just have to wait for my milk supply to regulate.
Does anyone have any pointers on ways to get my baby to open his mouth wider? Does anyone have any idea when your milk supply usually regulates?
Thanks for any insight you can offer me.
I used to have to tickle his jawline with my finger. Sometimes I would even tug (lightly) on his ears. Maybe you can try pumping for 5 minutes or so before you nurse so that the letdown isn’t as forceful. It’s worth a shot. Good luck….and congrats on the new baby!
Don’t give up nursing, it will work out. One day you’ll way up and your 15 month old will be handing you the boppy!!! That’s what mine does. He carries it over to me when he wants to nurse!!
Try pumping out some milk so he wont get flooded with milk. Continue to try but if you see he isnt drinking enough milk just feed him the ****** milk that youve pumped out.
– a worksheet w/ sketch drawings
– on the right side, there are some videos on latching
– on oversupply, and forceful letdown
To help him open wider, you sort of have to just keep pushing him to do it… if he latches on too shallow, pop him off and start again… in the beginning, I had some latch issues, but spend about 3 days fighting w/ my daughter – it got intense at one point, but I was not going to give up, and she was not going to get any milk out of me until she latched on correctly!! She got mad, I got frustrated… but I insisted on making her start over again, and again until it didn’t hurt. It took about 3 days of every feed starting off on the wrong foot, but we fixed it!!
Maybe find a different IBCLC, they all have their styles and experience – a new one might work better for you.
Usually your supply regulates by around 4-6 weeks… but you’re only one week later – so I’d still think you’re in the “normal range”…
First of all before feeding your baby try pumping some of the milk out into a bottle. This will help reduce the size of your ****** and will help slow down the amount that comes out of them.
Next, I would try holding your ****** in your palm right behind your ****** with fingers underneath and thumb on top. Gently squeeze down so that your ****** sort of flatens out and then try getting your baby to latch on that way. The more you can shove in so to speak the further latched on baby will be.
Babies are very smart and learn quickly. If he is afraid he is going to have too much milk coming at him then that is probably the reason he has such a shallow latch. Pumping a little bit and squeezing your ****** will help that problem and eventually he should begin to latch on correctly.
Props to you on your persistence with breastfeeding. Some mothers just give up too quickly. You are doing a great job!
Oh, I thought I had ****** feeding down come my girl, the 5th..But, she threw me and I had to call the LeLeche group..Here’s what they told me to do because she was having the same problem as your baby..
Try to picture this…Get a pillow, and lay it on your lap. Lay the baby on your lap, on her side, facing your chest..You want her totally even with your breast, so if you need to experiment with different pillows, do. Tuck one of her arms down, and the other away where she cant really get it in the way..Try getting her to latch on my tickling her mouth with your breast, and dont let her latch on until her mouth is way open.You may have to practice a bit..My daughter, once she had it in her mouth, would correct it and be latched on correctly. It may take a few days of doing this..I only had to do it a few days with my daughter till she got the hang of it.
Good luck!
Open your own mouth really wide. Even newborn babies can imitate ****** expressions, so providing him with a good model can really help.
Use your finger to nudge his chin and open up the mouth. I could never make this work with my first child because I felt like all my hands were already busy!
Scrunch up your ****** to make it seem smaller. You can also try smooshing your ****** (gently) into a flat shape. Make it flat on the same plane as baby’s mouth, like eating a sandwich.
Keep working, mama. You’re doing great, and you will be rewarded very soon with a baby who travels easily and can be fed while you sleep. You can do it.
If you can get him to consistently have a better latch, he will have better control over how much milk he gets even with an overactive letdown. That will stop the latch problems and the clamping down (which really, really hurts more than you’d think)
However of course fixing the latch isn’t soo easy, nor is fixing overactive letdown. Generally for women their supply regulates around 6 weeks, for some with overactive letdown it can be more like 3-4 months. And that can cause problems because the baby becomes used to the very fast flow of milk and then is frustrated with the slower flow.
You could try hand expressing past the first let down to try and reduce the flow. The problem being that that can signal your body to make more milk. You could also try block feedings were you only feed on one side for a set number of hours, then you feed on the other etc. Most moms have success with 2-4 hours. The other thing that helps is leaning back or even lying flat on your back while the baby nurses so the milk has to flow “uphill”
I would also try a different lactation consultant if possible. Not ever lactation consultant works well with every woman, nor do they have a solution to every problem.
Forceful Let-down (Milk Ejection Reflex) & Oversupply