Latching Wars?

I'm not sure about you, but I had lots of problems latching Alicia in the first month. She gave me sore, cracked and blistered nipples from incorrect latching, biting and pulling at my nipples with her gums... After being discharged from the hospital, I no longer had the help of nurses or lactation consultants during feeding time so I was all alone and every nursing session was a latching war. It usually comprised of a screaming and crying baby followed by a crying mummy...

After a few days of latching wars at home, I gave up on latching and expressed exclusively for her. But I didn't give up hope on latching her as I read that sometimes baby just takes awhile to learn to latch. So in the mean time, I read up on how to latch baby since I didn't want to engage the services of a lactation consultant then.

I stumbled upon two very good resources for breastfeeding during that time which I'd like to recommend.

For breastfeeding information, I really like kellymom.
Whenever I meet with breastfeeding questions, I'd consult that website first and only when I can't find the answers I need there then I'd call the lactation consultant.

For latching videos, Jack Newman has a wonderful library of videos to show and teach new mommies to latch baby! If you think a picture speaks a thousand words, then well, his videos are a treasure to a desperate mommy with very painful nipples :D

I hope you find these resources useful!

An aside: for those with cracked and painful nipples, I find Medela's Purelan effective in healing:



















What I like about it is that it is safe for ingestion so there's no need to remove the cream prior to breastfeeding.


For those who really find too much pain in nursing due to painful nipples, you can try using the nipple shields:

Mummies with flat or inverted nipples or mummies with babies who are reluctant to latch may find this useful too. You can read more about breastshields here.