bad latch

[esancen]

baby is 7 weeks old he has a bad latch because i feel his tonuge rubbing on my nipples and slight pain and it 's driving me nuts. LC says my latch is good but i know that is not true. i have told her that i feel him rubbing on my nipple. but she says the latch looks good i'm going crazy. But is it still possible to fix his latch at this age. Or am i domed. can anybody give advice

[ewe+lamb]

OK first of all, can you see his tongue at the side of his mouth when he nurses, does he stick his tongue out just before latching on? the tongue should cover the gums when nursing - so that's the first point of call, then we can go from there. if you are feeling the tongue rubbing on the nipple is it the tip of his tongue? If so you may be faced with a tongue tie and it really needs to be clipped asap, so that weight gain isn't affected and that you can start working on the latch right now - so answer these questions and we should be able to resolve things fairly quickly.

[esancen]

I can see his tongue when he nurses. the LC and the hospital said his tongue was great.
but when I latch him he does not stick his tongue out. he barely even opens his mouth. and i try to make him open wide but when he does, i shove him in and when i look down to see how much breast he took in he barly has any. The problem started because he had thrush two weeks after he was born. i stopped breastfeeding and gave him a bottle because he hadn't gone back to birth weight and also because he was in pain when he breast feed and he didn't want it. He got better and i put him back on the breast and he still liked it. and i was like great this can still work. I have been breastfeeding for 3 weeks exclusively and he has gained weight great. But now i see a deep in my milk he is getting fussy and the nipple rubbing and chompping is driving me crazy. is there any thing you can tell me abuot what is going on. when it rubs it is not the tip of his tongue

[esancen]

i talked to my LC today and i told her if she can help me with the latch. she pretty much told me to keep trying to deep latch him and to use a nipple shield. i feel pretty letdown by my LC. i.m thinking of trying somewhere else. what do you guys think.

[tibeca]

Find yourself a local LLL Leader. They may best be able to help you. (And they're free. )

[ShwarmaQueen]

Yes, please get a second, third or even 4th opinion. I find that breastfeeding educators, LCs, etc are only as knowledgable as their experience has taught them (if that makes sense). One may see something or tell you something that fixes the problem that the other couldn't!

[ewe+lamb]

OK can you say then which part of the tongue is rubbing on the breast - describe it quite clearly so that se can get a jist of what's going on. Also have you tried a finger exam of the baby's mouth, running your pinky finger palm side up across the roof of the mouth and palate to see if there is anything untoward?

[katelove]

It sounds like she might be bunching her tongue. My LO had a perfect looking latch too but it was still painful and my nipple was squashed when she came off.

A speech pathologist assessed her and found that she was bunching her tongue when she sucked which pushed my nipple forward. She gave us some exercises to do which helped and she has her tongue well forward now.

[esancen]

That sounds exactly like whats going on, my nipples comes out flat. My nipples dont look rounded anymore they look all distorted. What kind of exercises if you dont mind me asking. It wouldn't hurt to try them. I'll try putting my finger in her mouth to see how it feels. i'll get back later.

[katelove]

No, not at all. There were two. For the first one I would put my little finger in her mouth, nail side down. When she started to suck I would sweep my finger from side to side to encourage her tongue to cup my finger.

For the second one, little finger went in the same way. This time when she started sucking I had to gently press down against her tongue and draw my finger out to encourage her tongue to come forwards.

I was advised to do the first one 3 times/day for a week and, if my nipples still hurt, to add the second one.

Hope that helps
Cheers
Kate

[annettemarie]

Moving out to the main forum, as per the forum guidelines.

[esancen]

Thankyou so much for shareing. i'll try them hopefully that will do the trick. Did your baby take her tongue out to latch. Because mine doesn't. and i know it isn't tongue tie because she has the longest tongue ever, maybe that's the problem. maybe the excericises will work.

[ShwarmaQueen]

Originally Posted by esancen

and i know it isn't tongue tie because she has the longest tongue ever, maybe that's the problem. maybe the excericises will work.

Posterior tongue tie is commonly overlooked. The tongue appears normal, but is restricted in the middle/back (hence 'posterior'). The tongue cannot reach up to support the nipple and undulate normally. If the exercises don't help, I'd get the opinion of a ENT, just in case.

[katelove]

Originally Posted by esancen

Thankyou so much for shareing. i'll try them hopefully that will do the trick. Did your baby take her tongue out to latch. Because mine doesn't. and i know it isn't tongue tie because she has the longest tongue ever, maybe that's the problem. maybe the excericises will work.

Sorry, I've only just come back to this thread. I'm not really sure what she does with her tongue now at the moment of latching on but I can usually see her tongue now when she feeds, sticking out almost as far as her bottom lip.

All the best with the exercises, I hope they help.