How do you help those babies who will latch on anything, e.g. areola
instead of nipple?

A mom has a 4 mo old who will latch on at anything - has sucked a
hickie on mom's arm a couple of times, lol. Mom says latch is often
"not so good at the first attempt", and when the baby was younger, the
mom let him suckle for a while, and then re-latch the baby for a
better latch.

The problem is that the baby is now on a nursing strike (nurses fine
when laying down in a quiet room, but not at e.g. cradle hold in the
living room), and he doesn't tolerate mom fixing the latch. If mom
tries to fix the latch better, he will pull off and start crying, and
often will not take the breast again. Mom also feels it was easier to
achieve a good latch in a sitting position (cradle hold) than now in
bed.

My usual talk about the asymmetric latch etc is not helping this mom
at all :( , because the baby will latch (=close his mouth) as soon as
the breast touches his mouth (lower lip), so he ends up sucking on the
areola instead of the nipple.

Mom says the baby initiated bfeeding by himself after the birth (i.e.
no post partum pinch ;) , and that he occasionally latched fine,
before the nursing strike. She has tried also letting the baby lie
half-naked on her chest, and find the nipple by himself, but didn't
seem impressed by that.

I find this rather interesting because also my younger son did have
quite similar problems, but he did it (latching on at anything) only
when he was _very_ hungry, and he suddenly stopped doing it at about
6 - 8 weeks of age. Besides, I found my own tricks to help him latch
properly even when he was hungry like a wolf (that sometimes happens
:( when you have other kids to look after), so it never really was a
problem.

Anyway, your input on this mom's eagerly latching baby is much
appreciated. She managed ok until the nursing strike. Mom says nipples
are ok so far, but suckling does feel uncomfortable when the latch is
poor. Also general info on this kind of babies (and how to help the
mom) would be greatly appreciated.

Sanna-Mari, mom to sons 3,5 yo & 7 mo
a mom-to-mom bf support group leader
Finland, Scandinavia

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