Newborn chomping

[remijo]

My baby is 12 days old. I thought this would go away but it hasn't since day 1. She chomps on my nipples and it hurts so bad, my breasts and nipples now hurt all the time, regardless of whether I am feeding at the moment. Her latch looks fine and she is gaining weight great so its not affecting her getting milk, just me hurting. There are no symptoms of thrush besides shooting pains in my breasts. While she's feeding, I can really see her jaw working. Any advice? Will she eventually quit? I am starting to get frustrated. TIA.

[kismetbaby]

Ugh, I feel ya. My LO was very chompy the first 2 months and it hurt! I think it led to vasospasms for me which caused pain beyond just the feeding. I would strongly encourage you to look into craniosacral or chiropractic for your LO. They can have jaw tension from birth that causes the chomping which can really be helped by these therapies. The nice thing about craniosacral work is that it is very gentle and non-invasive, but still quite effective. Do you have a MW or someone who can refer you to a good practitioner in your area? If nothing else you might try some gentle massage of your LOs jaw area. . .anything that gets her more relaxed before feeding could help. I would also sing or hum something soothing to my babe to try and get him to just relax and not chomp down. Maybe different BFing positions might help ease your pain or help your LO be less chompy.

My son just outgrew this. ..he clearly had some sort of tension or pain. . .never did figure out why he was so chompy, but it did get better (around 6 weeks) and we now BF without pain. So hang in there!

[PatioGardener]

Do you have a really fast let down? The chomping may be a rsponse to 'slow the flow'. If that is the case, try sitting baby upright to nurse, and sometimes reclining mama can help too.

Hope your nipples feel better soon!

[alyssakeller]

I'm just wondering if you've found a solution to this yet. My newborn son who is 5 days old has been doing this pretty much since birth. His latch is good and everyone at the hospital said it looked good too. My boyfriend helps and checks for me too and he says it looks like he's on there good, as well. He's eating and having enough diapers each day (we go in tomorrow and we'll see if he's gained weight) so just like you, it's only me that's suffering. I have no idea what to do and I'm so upset. My first son who is now 2 nursed perfectly for 6 months. I wanted to do at least that much with this one. The nurse I spoke to on the phone today suggested I just pump for today and bottle-feed him until tomorrow when I can talk to/meet with a lactation consultant. I've been really sad about it and I'm just getting scared that if it's causing this much pain I won't be able to continue and it's SO important to me and I really want to do this.