I am responding to Heidi's request for successful nipple shield experiences or
other strategies for getting a 3.5 month old bottle feeding baby on the breast.
I have had two cases in the past year where I have used an "outlaw" nipple
shield when it was clear that NOTHING else would work. Both babies has
disorganized sucks and in the first case the baby was finger fed for her first
week and was still losing weight when she presented to me, down 14%. I fed the
baby pumped mother's milk with a bottle because it was clear to me that we
needed to feed the baby by whatever means necessary. I find that you can use a
bottle for babies that can't organize to breastfeed initially. Once we get the
baby built up, we can work on the direct feeding from the breast. I have found
that the baby will not give up trying to nurse as long as the mother is willing
to work on it. In both cases these babies took six weeks of bottle feeding and
working at breastfeeding with the "outlawed" nipple shield to make the
transition. Mothers required a lot of support to persevere. I did vision
work/imagery with them to sustain their resolve when progress was slow, but it
worked. I couldn't have helped these babies to nurse without the "outlaw"
nipple sheild. It's the old fashioned one that looks like a bottle nipple on a
rigid plastic flange that fits over the nipple/areola like a breatpump fitting.
BOO-HISSS...I can hear it now, plugged ducts, poor milk transfer, nipple
preference. I was presented with this gadget by the first of these two women,
she brought it with her to our first meeting. I had never seen one "in person"
before. I didn't know they were still being manufactured. We had to work to get
her baby to take adequate food with a bottle and then we taught her to take
breastmilk at breast with the "outlaw". It was a stuggle, but at four weeks, we
were able to latch her baby on, but then the baby didn't latch again for five
days, and it took a lot of support to keep the mother focused on the long term
outcome, the vision of the baby nursing. I am open to whatever works and never
would have endorsed the "outlaw" except that it worked when nothing else would
with two babies who had similar tongue sucking latches. Over time, as the
babies grew confident about getting enough to eat, abundant milk supplies
ensured with a rigorous pumping schedule, feeding at breast with shield,
supplementing after breastfeeding with bottle if baby acted hungry. Initially
mother was feeding baby three times, once to pump, once with shield and then
with bottle to satisfy if still hungry after nipple shield feeding. Gradually,
babies were able to get more satisfied from the nipple shield as they developed
their skills and it became apparent that they could manage faster flow, so we
enticed them to nurse directly at breast. At this point we had some latch
correction to do, and some nipple soreness to resolve, but babies were
breastfeeding...and still are, one at 4.5 months and one at 13 months (actually
13 month old is having nursing strike). So my message is e-mail me privately
and I'll give you more info about the "outlaw" and the strict requirements for
it's use.I don't know how well it will work with an older infant, both of mine
started in their first week, but one was two weeks old before she even took the
sheild. I'd publish these case studies, but I'm painting my house instead.
Also, if I could get started on my craniosacral study, I could probably have
helped these babies to latch earlier. Blessings. k
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