I have a friend from church that gave birth to her 2nd child, dd, on Sunday. She is determinded to BF (managed 5 months with 1st, ds) but she says she's having latch problems. She thinks her dd isn't getting enough nipple in her mouth. So....

1. how do you know if there is enough nipple in babe's mouth?
2. is cracking/bleeding a sign of a bad latch?
3. what advice would you give her?

I told her lanolin, air dry, try different hold (football, etc), be sure nipple is pointing towards the roof of her mouth, tummy to tummy so she doesn't have to turn her head...what did I miss?

She's crying, in pain, frustrated, worried about her dd...

She thinks she is getting nourishment...having wet/poopy diapers...

Help me help her!

tia...

cracks/ bleeding could also be yeast, but it can be a bad latch too. it can also be that her nipples are no longer tough from bfing her first and they need to get tough.

try laying down, that's what helped me the most, while i was bfing 90% of the time we were laying down (on our sides).

It hurt for weeks with me and katherine b/c it takes time for nipples to toughen up. I was in pain too. I just... bore it until it went away, and it did go away... it was very difficult and painful for me, but my nipples DID eventually get with the program. it's kinda like running in bare feet - hurts like heck at first, eventually you get callouses.

You can know if there is enough nipple in that they are not biting the "nipple" itself but have some of the areola in their mouths. This was an issue for me when they were first born because i have HUGE nipples, so they could barely get it in. When my babies grew (like in a couple weeks to a month or two), it was easier for them to take in more of the nipple/areola because their mouths were bigger. Do you know if her DD was full term?

I wouldn't worry about nutrition as long as she's got plenty of wet & dirty diapers...

thanks, Nichole...will forward to her...

her dd was full term...born day before edd.

It took weeks here too... patience & prayer are definitely important! Lots of lanolin, lying down, making sure the *whole* nipple is in the mouth... basically just what everyone else said.

thanks Margi! pray for her if you get a chance...

Thanks, Ashlee - I forgot about that website...passing it to her now!