# Poor latch - How can I get her mouth open wider?



## Baby Makes 4 (Feb 18, 2005)

When Lily was born she had a tiny mouth and even now at one month old her mouth is pretty small. The nurses and I tried really hard to get her to open her mouth wide to get a good latch at the hospital and eventually just gave up and figured once her mouth was bigger it would get easier. Not too much you can do about a little mouth/big nipples situation.

Here we are at one month and she still won't open her mouth wide. She likes to just open her mouth a little bit and sort of "slurp" my nipple in. It hurts.

I've already suffered from one plugged duct and I'm pretty sure her poor latch had something to do with that. My nipples aren't cracked or anything but they are tender.

Any ideas? I've watched the Jack Newman videos and read my Womanly art of Breastfeeding book and even when I wait for her to open her mouth and latch her on chin first she still pushes my nipple out of her mouth and then slurps it back in.


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## Bookworm? (Aug 16, 2006)

You could try "practicing" when she is quiet alert and not hungry. Many young babies will mimic you when you open your mouth wide. Say "open" and open your mouth very wide. Encourage her to do the same by running your finger from her forehead down her nose, over her lips, gently pulling her chin down when you get there. Do this a few times any time she seems open to it. Do the same thing when you are latching her on in addition to getting her chin first ect.
I don't know if the Newman videos show a "nipple sandwich" or not. Support the breast in a way that makes it an oval the fits corner to corner with babies mouth. Hard to explain but if you are in the football hold compress the breast slightly with a C hold. If in the cradle postion the breast would be supported in U or upside down U postion. Get it? Good luck, it will get better as she grows but continue to encourage her to open wide as much as possible.


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## Llyra (Jan 16, 2005)

My DD2 was born small (5 1/2 pounds) and had a tiny rosebud mouth. She and I struggled very badly with slurping up the nipple, and with a shallow latch. FWIW, I did nothing except keep working with her on it, and it got better all on its own as she grew. It was around 6 or 7 weeks when I really started to see improvement. If it hurts when she latches on, does the pain lessen once the milk lets down? If it does, it might be something that will take care of itself. If it hurts through the entire nursing session, that's something else entirely.

Is baby gaining appropriately? If so, I'd just continue to patiently work on it.

If not, or if you're having pain through the entire session, that might mean the latch is bad enough that baby isn't transferring milk. In that case, I'd start searching for a good certified lactation consultant to help you out. Medela's website provides referrals.

One thing that helped DD2-- if she latched on badly, I'd unlatch her and try again right away. Even if it was frustrating to stop her, even if I was inclined to just let it be. The more she "practices" a bad habit, the more persistent the habit will be. If the latch is no good, you can unlatch her and start over, until she latches on effectively.

BTW, Lily is such a lovely name!


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## hippychickaquarius (Feb 2, 2009)

Have you checked to see if your DD is tongue-tied?

Have you considered cranial sacral therapy?
http://www.llli.org/llleaderweb/LV/LVAugSep01p82.html

Just a couple ideas to look into. Hang in there!


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## clutterbug (Apr 6, 2007)

Both my guys were poor mouth-openers...I tried waiting for the big wide mouth but it just made them angry. I think I have a ton of milk and therefore they don't need to work for it, so a slightly open mouth is all they need to eat. However, it hurts me!

What I did was the nipple sandwich that someone else mentioned, and also a little tug on the chin as I brought them to the breast. It opened their mouths that little bit more, and it also taught them that I wanted them to open wide.

Usually their mouths grew bigger (hence their lazy opening was still bigger relative to my unchanging boob!) before the open mouth really caught on...but eventually they both developed the gaping, I'm-so-hungry-pleeeease-feed-me mouth. It makes me chuckle every time I latch DS2 on (and DS1 before him) because I think back to how much I wanted him to do that as a newborn and now that it's not quite as important, he does it perfectly


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## paulamc (Jun 25, 2008)

I don't have much to add in terms of advice, but just wanted to share that my LO is now 5 months old and like someone else said about their LO, he has developed this almost comically WIDE open mouth - the one I really wanted him to do in those first weeks but he couldn't seem to muster. But that's during the day, when he's alert.

At night when he awakens and needs to be nursed back to sleep, he barely opens. It doesn't cause a huge problem because he seems to be able to correct the latch once I'm in, for the most part, and he doesn't seem to be damaging my nipple along the way. I say 'for the most part' because I'm still having troubles with the right side getting pinched. But that's for another thread... Oh, and when I feel like the latch isn't very deep I do try to push his chin down, do the lower lip flip, and I support my breast as much as possible especially since we nurse lying down at night.

Good luck! I'm sure it will get better.


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## Baby Makes 4 (Feb 18, 2005)

Quote:


Originally Posted by *Llyra* 
If it hurts when she latches on, does the pain lessen once the milk lets down?

Is baby gaining appropriately?

BTW, Lily is such a lovely name!

The pain goes away for the most part but it feels a bit "pinchy" at times.

She's gaining very well so I know she's getting plenty of milk.

Thank you!

Quote:


Originally Posted by *hippychickaquarius* 
Have you checked to see if your DD is tongue-tied?

Have you considered cranial sacral therapy?
http://www.llli.org/llleaderweb/LV/LVAugSep01p82.html

She's definitely not tongue-tied, she can stick her tongue out so far it almost touches her chin! I'll look into the cranial sacral therapy, I don't know much about it but we are big believers in chiropractic and acupuncture.

Quote:


Originally Posted by *Bookworm?* 
I don't know if the Newman videos show a "nipple sandwich" or not.

Yup, we've got the nipple sandwich thing down.

Quote:


Originally Posted by *bluepetals* 
B
What I did was the nipple sandwich that someone else mentioned, and also a little tug on the chin as I brought them to the breast.

Thanks, I've been trying this and it seems to help.

Quote:


Originally Posted by *paulamc* 
Good luck! I'm sure it will get better.

Thank you.


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## SeaBean (Feb 12, 2007)

You have already gotten some great advice, but I wanted to chime in b/c I have a Lilly too and we had the same issue. Gently pushing the chin down and using the boob sandwich helped us too.

Also -- this will sound silly -- but for at least a month or more, I would show her how she needed to "open wide" before eating. I would say "ahhhh, open!" while opening my mouth. I personally think it worked.. babies are good little mimics.









Best of luck to you!


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## Ianthe (Dec 19, 2006)

Quote:


Originally Posted by *SeaBean* 
Y

Also -- this will sound silly -- but for at least a month or more, I would show her how she needed to "open wide" before eating. I would say "ahhhh, open!" while opening my mouth. I personally think it worked.. babies are good little mimics.







!

I did this too, and always said, "Open Wide" before latching.. I think it worked too! I've read in several places since then that it helps to say something similar when latching..


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