How to get baby to open wide

[Ambivalent Dreams]

Baby was born Friday. I am having a hard time getting him to open wide and get a good latch. Any tricks to getting him to open wide? I tried tickling his nose with my nipple but that is not working.

[shotmama]

There is the option of calling a La Leche League leader in your area, and I would do so as soon as possible! they can take a look at your latch and give you the right advice.

my LO had latch problems (or still does i think) when she was just born, and i can give you the advice that was given to me if you'd like. i was silly and waited until LO was 7 weeks old and by then correcting it took weeks.

are you pumping and feeding your LO, too? they say that if you pump and bottle feed too early, they learn to clamp down from bottle behavior. (totally happened with us, too)

here's the advice i was given, worth a try i think:
bring baby to breast, never the other way around.
when bringing baby's mouth to breast, push against the shoulders into your chest, while supporting baby's head, so that baby's head is tilting back a lot. this will force baby's lower jaw into the breast more, encouraging baby to open wider to get milk.

also, you may have a strong first let down and baby might naturally be clamping down to slow the flow. i was told to unlatch baby and talk to baby a bit when that first letdown comes, and it only takes a minute or two for the muscles in the breast to relax, allowing a slower flow for baby.

ofcourse, my LO ALWAYS cried while i tried to talking to her, but she would always choke on the first let down if she didn't clamp down. and to think, i was paranoid that i had no milk cause i thought i had smaller breasts than other BFing women!

hope you solve your problem.

[sparklefairy]

You could try "laid back" breastfeeding, giving baby a change to self-attach. They can often get a wider gape this way. Beginning at about 1:14 there's an example of it here. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=auVmnvwNUOE
As to the comment that doubts -- I've seen this happen in person many times :-)

Another one:
http://biologicalnurturing.com/video/bn3clip.html

[dharmabum]

I find it helpful to compress my breast and touch my breast, under the areola (in a cradle hold) to the baby's bottom lip. It all happens pretty quickly, and I usually have to untuck his lips after he latches.

[Ambyrkatt]

What has now worked with both of my babies is for me to model a wide mouth for them. Lean in close enough for baby to see your face and open your mouth really wide into an "O" shape and make the "aaahhhh" sound. Keep trying and baby will open it's mouth. Insert nipple (mine are huge, so I have to squash them and push them in) and then if baby doesn't immediately latch (my most recent one wasn't at this point), then make sucking noises with your mouth "Nom nom nom."

I had to repeat this at every nursing session from Sunday to yesterday.... today she seems to be getting it without the propping. I know this all sounds really silly, but I have now had to do it twice and it's worked for me. Can't hurt to try it.

[RaeDyCo]

These are the tips that helped me & DS1 when we were working through our latching woes:

http://www.mother-2-mother.com/latching.htm

http://www.mother-2-mother.com/NippleSandwich.htm