Newbie, poor latch & gassy, what can I do?

[babygrey]

I've newbie twins, 4 weeks old. They were born at 36+5wk and were a few oz shy of 6lbs each. Since birth, babygirl has had a crappy latch. She clicks and clucks and I can feel her tongue snapping at my nipple. Have had her checked for tongue tie (no). Met with an LC in the hosp who felt the issue was pretty much related to her small mouth size vs my large nipple size. ITA, but I don't really know what to do. She def is petite, and has a small mouth. Even open at her widest, she can only barely get the whole nipple in her mouth. I do un-latch and re-latch her when it is really bad, but even her best latch is still poor, so generally I just suck it up and let her nurse with a crappy latch bc if I unlatch and relatch her too many times, she gets tired out and falls asleep and won't nurse. (for real, she never, ever has nursed without some clicking) She does best in cradle, is semi-okay in sidelying (if I can hold my breast in a weird position for her :lol). Can't do football hold at all. Forget tandem nursing. 

She's gaining wt well and is alert and thriving, so it isn't really an emergent issue, but she's really, really gassy bc she swallows so much air and we can't cozy up at night bc I've got to burp her every few minutes, and, while it doesn't hurt me, it sure doesn't feel good to have her clicking at me. Mostly it is the air-swallowing I'd like to fix.

Any ideas? I was hoping we'd just grow out of it, yk? Except that she's a month old and it isn't really getting better and I wasn't planning on a long-term grow out of it. Is there anything I could be doing to help?

oh, and meeting with a LC isn't in the financial cards right now, tho I did trek out to an LLL meeting, where the consensus was that she's small and I need to wait for her to grow out of it :)

ETA: in addition to a small mouth, she does kind of seem to have a really long tongue, which kellymom lists as one of the reasons for clicking and poor latch (of course, there's no advice on the situation, just a point to say it could cause it...)

ETAA: I also keep reading oversupply/forceful letdown, but I don't think I have either of those things, esp given that she's been nursing like this since before I had milk, yk? Plus, her twin is nursing without issue and they're pretty much the same size.

Edited by babygrey - 4/25/11 at 2:13am

[PatioGardener]

my addition would be to look for a tongue-tie...

nak

ps way to go - nursing twins who came early. go Mama!

[Stayseeliz]

HI there! I remember you from the April DDC. DD3 was also born at 36w5d and she's four weeks old. She struggled with a poor latch at first. My suggestion would be to fiddle with pillows to get a good height and work on the football hold again. Sometimes that's the only way I can get her to latch correctly. Side lying really doesn't work for us either. I'd call around to the hospitals near you and see if they have an LC you can meet with. I know the one at the hospital where we delivered said to call or come in if we needed anything at all!

ETA: We've had to resort to mylicon for the gassiness a few times too. I hate it but it works!

[babygrey]

oh, congrats, mama! I've totally been stalking the ddc in my nak moments, I'm not so good at typing and nursing, yet tho. Your little DD is just lovely :) 

thanks for the advice- unfortu for me, the hosp around here are tight on cash and none of them will let you talk to their LCs unless you are inpatient. I do have a call in to a friend of friend who's an LC, so hopefully that'll get me some real time support

May try the mylecon, I hadn't thought of that

Originally Posted by Stayseeliz 

HI there! I remember you from the April DDC. DD3 was also born at 36w5d and she's four weeks old. She struggled with a poor latch at first. My suggestion would be to fiddle with pillows to get a good height and work on the football hold again. Sometimes that's the only way I can get her to latch correctly. Side lying really doesn't work for us either. I'd call around to the hospitals near you and see if they have an LC you can meet with. I know the one at the hospital where we delivered said to call or come in if we needed anything at all!

ETA: We've had to resort to mylicon for the gassiness a few times too. I hate it but it works!

[babygrey]

Originally Posted by PatioGardener 

my addition would be to look for a tongue-tie...

nak

ps way to go - nursing twins who came early. go Mama!

Thank for the the props- for real, I was totally scared in to believing I wouldn't be able to nurse them, esp after we had to start w/ SNS, but YAY

she has been checked for tongue tie, but i think i'll ask her ped to take another look when we're in this week

[PatioGardener]

Originally Posted by babygrey 

she has been checked for tongue tie, but i think i'll ask her ped to take another look when we're in this week

It may be that your ped doesn't know what to look for. Anterior ties are easy to see, but posteriors are not, and can cause lots of issues. There is a great thread around here somewhere on them- you may want to have a quick read before you head to the ped.

Good luck, and more for your hard work! (Same goes to all moms of twins out there!)