non-nurser rooting for my breast?

[meghan711]

My baby is 3 weeks old and had trouble latching since birth.  I saw LCs at the hospital and had a visiting nurse come over every few days but no one could get him to latch.  Even with a nipple shield, he just couldn't do it.  He even had some craniosacral therapy, which didn't help.  So I've been pumping for him and he gets bottles of my milk- I haven't tried to put him to breast in over a week.  Today I was holding him while he was fussing, and he turned his face towards my breast and started rooting.  I got excited and took off my shirt and tried to get him to latch, but he wouldn't.  He was excited to get my nipple into his mouth, and he was sucking but not actually latched.  He got mad and started crying furiously and I tried to give him a bottle, but he wasn't hungry.  He eventually started sucking on his hand and calmed down.  But does him rooting for my nipple mean that he wants to nurse?  I kind of got my hopes up there for a minute, and now I'm upset.  

[cookie_]

I had a very similar experience with my son when he was born. He had a terrible latch and all our work with an LC and others just couldn't help him latch on well enough to get more than a drop or two of milk out. It seemed like his mouth was just too tiny and he had a wee bit of a tongue tie, though not enough to warrant a snip. The routine we settled on was this: I pumped, then would give him a bottle of pumped milk at feeding time. After he'd had about half of whatever amount he was drinking at that point (enough to take the edge off his hunger), I'd put him to my breast, choosing whichever nipple was in the least painful shape at that point. I'd let him suck for as long as I could stand it or until I'd see the first sign of frustration. Then I'd switch him back to finish up the bottle. It was a total pain in the neck and I don't know if it was the best plan, but it did work to keep him used to the breast. Around 4 weeks, I saw a marked improvement in his latch. Although it wasn't perfect, he started to be able to get out more milk from the breast and it started to be less excruciating for me. By 6 weeks, his latch was good enough to stop with the bottles altogether.

I don't know if that method will work for you, but my advice is to keep putting him to the breast whenever you can when he's not starving. Did they give you exercises to do with him to help stretch his mouth and train his tongue movements? Good luck!

[daisymommy]

Do you have flattened nipples?  Is that why they tried to have you use a nipple shield?  I'm just wondering, because your son sounds just like my first, when I had flat nipples.  He couldn't latch on.  And when your nipple isn't long enough to touch the roof of their mouth, it doesn't turn on their instinct to suck.

I figured I would ask before I start explaining too much

[meghan711]

Yeah, flat nipples.  What I was doing for a while was pumping for a few minutes before trying to get him to latch- it got my nipples to pop out and it got my milk flowing.  We spent his second week of life in the PICU at the hospital and he got way too used to the instant gratification of bottles and really cemented his dislike for nursing.  So I would do that then use the shield, but he ended up just sucking on the end of the shield like a pacifier, or he would hang out at the breast foreverrr (45+ minutes) and still down his usual 2 oz bottle afterwards like he hadn't eaten anything all day.  

[daisymommy]

I would try wearing breast shields inside your bra, that are made from pushing out flattened nipples.

Babies have a reflex, where they latch on and start sucking when your nipple touches the roof of their mouth.  If they can't feel it because your nipples are to flat, they keep bobbing their little head around searching for it, even though it's right there.

Try the shells 24/7 for awhile, and if you can get him to nurse, after a couple weeks you won't need the shells anymore.

Hang in there, it does get better!

[Parker'smommy]

My ds didn't latch on for 14 days. Luckily I had a great LC at the hospital and we never gave him a bottle despite not nursing. We finger fed him pumped milk in a syringe.  He would scream and cry and my breasts were RIGHT there and he just wouldn't latch or try to suck. I do not have flat nipples. One of the techniques we used was using a syringe. I would put him to the breast and dh would squirt a little pumped milk into his mouth via the syringe. That would make him start to suck. Dh would continue to give him little squirts of milk to get him to continue to suck.

One of the big things that helped him latch on was that I tried feeding him more often. I didn't wait until he was starving. He gave very little hunger cues and was a happy baby so it was hard to read him. So I started offering to nurse when he wasn't even acting hungry, but it turns out he was. So, if he seems to be going 2 hours between feedings, try offering at 1 1/2 hours.

Good luck! I ended up nursing baby till he was 3!

[bri276]

Also try giving him a little less instant gratification.  Slow flow nipples- I've read that the Dr. Brown's wide neck bottles with the slowest flow nipples are the closest to simulating a breastfeeding type of latch.  We had an awful time in the beginning and I used the Adiri nurser now and then to give my boobs a break, it never hurt her latch, if anything it helped it.

[ShanaV]

Just keep trying! My guys would take forever with the nipple shields too, we're talkin' 45 to 75 mins! And I pumped and fed them with bottles too, just to fill them up quick. Eventually they stopped needing it though. One day I was getting out the shield with the babies on the nursing pillow and one baby just went NOM onto the boob and never looked back. It will happen one day. Your baby will nurse, just keep up the effort!

[Amy0417]

I didn't read the other posts so I'm sorry if I am repeating what others have said.  It is possible to get him on the breast.  He definitely is recognizing the smell of your milk.  I would suggest doing as much skin-to-skin as possible.  Let him root, grab, lick - whatever.  Just let him take his time.  It would be even better to do this in the bath.  The more skin-to-skin contact he gets smelling your milk/breasts the more he'll be interested in suckling. 

[Amy0417]

You could also try an SNS feeder or a syringe (like a pp said) at the breast.  If you want to get rid of bottles all together you could cup fed.  Babies are better at drinking out of a cup than you'd think!