will this ever get comfortable?

Hi, some of you may remember me. I posted here a few years ago when ds was
a baby.

Dd was born 11/26 and latched on right away. Her latch felt shallow and the
maternity nurse told me to do the "nipple sandwich" thing and walked away.
I decided this was normal newborn stuff and didn't worry too much about it,
as my nipples progressed from sore, to scabbed, to cracked, fissured, and
blistered. At 3 weeks postpartum we made an appointment with a LC who told
me to pump some feedings so I could heal and gave me some ointment. Dd
proceeded to continue to hurt me. At 6 weeks postpartum we went to see a
different LC who diagnosed me with thrush and told me to get on Nystatin and
Diflucan (if the Nystatin didn't work), and told me that dd had a shallow
latch and I needed to hold her closer to me. Both LCs told me she should
grow out of nursing in a painful way.

The problems at that point we

1. Thrush
2. Shallow latch
3. Annoying tongue behavior during nursing -- she will practically push the
nipple out of her mouth and either suck on it in the entrance of her mouth,
or suck it back in -- both hurt. It is hard for me to tell when she is
doing this, but when I can tell, I take her off for a bit and try to relatch
her. Not always easy to do with a sleepy newborn.
4. dd has a slightly high and unusual shape to her palate which may be
contributing to some of my pain (but LC said probably not much).

Both LCs seemed to think dd would grow out of everything. By well before
now!

Well, here we are at 9 weeks and dd still exhibiting painful nursing
behaviors. She is opening up slightly wider, but is still doing the
annoying tongue behavior. Now all I have is blisters--the cracks and
fissures have healed. Still, there is some pain occasionally when nursing.
We are still on the Nystatin which means there is a whole medication routine
to go through (both have to rinse and apply topical medication to my breasts
and her mouth) which prevents just sitting and cuddling together after
nursing is over.

I can see that things have gotten better over the weeks, but I am really
wondering if dd will *ever* nurse comfortably! Ideally I would like her on
there good before my maternity leave is over and I have to go back to work.
Unless breastfeeding goes very well, I will be tempted to wean her and I
really wanted to nurse her for a full year at least (I nursed my 1st for 2
years. I asked him if he could give her some pointers about a good latch,
and he bent over her and said "Do your best." lol).

Has anyone else been here? Do they really grow out of this? I could use some
encouragement from someone who has been there.

Thanks!

Joy

In article ,
"Joy Haftel" wrote:

Both LCs seemed to think dd would grow out of everything. By well before
now!

Find another LC, or better, get in touch with your country's breastfeeding
support group. I think you need some person-to-person advice.

--
Chookie -- Sydney, Australia
(Replace "foulspambegone" with "optushome" to reply)

"Jeez; if only those Ancient Greek storytellers had known about the astonishing
creature that is the *Usenet hydra*: you cut off one head, and *a stupider one*
grows back..." -- MJ, cam.misc

"Joy Haftel" wrote in message ...
Hi, some of you may remember me. I posted here a few years ago when ds was
a baby.

Dd was born 11/26 and latched on right away. Her latch felt shallow and the
maternity nurse told me to do the "nipple sandwich" thing and walked away.

well, that was rude, huh?


1. Thrush
2. Shallow latch
3. Annoying tongue behavior during nursing -- she will practically push the
nipple out of her mouth and either suck on it in the entrance of her mouth,
or suck it back in -- both hurt. It is hard for me to tell when she is
doing this, but when I can tell, I take her off for a bit and try to relatch
her. Not always easy to do with a sleepy newborn.

joy, it sounds like she still has a shallow latch, in order to be able
to manipulate your nipple that way. I think seeing someone who can do
some suck retraining might help. another thing that helps a lot of
poorly latching babies is some good cranial sacral therapy by a good
osteopathic physician. call your local DO's and see if they do it or
whom they can recommend. Any homebirth midwives in your area might be
able to suggest someone too.

It will get better, but it sounds like you need to find someoen to
help you get there.


=====
Kate, http://www.cs.colorado.edu/~kolina/a...f-formula.html
Mom to Ursula (9!), Sage (6.5), Benno (3!!) "A successful person is
one
who can lay a firm foundation with the bricks that others throw at him
or her." David Brinkley, News Journalist
http://listserv.uts.edu.au/mailman/listinfo/parent-l

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/PY-teenAP/ Your new era in parenting!

"Joy Haftel" wrote in message ...
Hi, some of you may remember me. I posted here a few years ago when ds was
a baby.
snip.

The problems at that point we

1. Thrush
2. Shallow latch
3. Annoying tongue behavior during nursing -- she will practically push the
nipple out of her mouth and either suck on it in the entrance of her mouth,
or suck it back in -- both hurt. It is hard for me to tell when she is
doing this, but when I can tell, I take her off for a bit and try to relatch
her. Not always easy to do with a sleepy newborn.
4. dd has a slightly high and unusual shape to her palate which may be
contributing to some of my pain (but LC said probably not much).

Both LCs seemed to think dd would grow out of everything. By well before
now!

Well, here we are at 9 weeks and dd still exhibiting painful nursing
behaviors. She is opening up slightly wider, but is still doing the
annoying tongue behavior. Now all I have is blisters--the cracks and
fissures have healed. Still, there is some pain occasionally when nursing.
We are still on the Nystatin which means there is a whole medication routine
to go through (both have to rinse and apply topical medication to my breasts
and her mouth) which prevents just sitting and cuddling together after
nursing is over.

I can see that things have gotten better over the weeks, but I am really
wondering if dd will *ever* nurse comfortably! Ideally I would like her on
there good before my maternity leave is over and I have to go back to work.
Unless breastfeeding goes very well, I will be tempted to wean her and I
really wanted to nurse her for a full year at least (I nursed my 1st for 2
years. I asked him if he could give her some pointers about a good latch,
and he bent over her and said "Do your best." lol).

Has anyone else been here? Do they really grow out of this? I could use some
encouragement from someone who has been there.

Thanks!

Joy

I didn't find it wasy at the start and I had none of the problems you
have had. I have no bright ideas other than call LLL but I wanted to
say well done for sticking with it.

teapot