If you are having problems waking your baby to feed, try the following:
• Loosen or remove blankets. If feasible, undress the baby completely.
• Skin-to-skin contact encourages more active suckling.
• Try changing the baby’s diaper.
• Rub back, hands or feet during nursing to keep awake.
• Place baby in upright position or lay them down and roll them gently from side to side.
If your baby falls asleep before seeming to complete feeding, other issues may be present. Sleepiness may be caused by not enough calories consumed by your baby (poor milk removal), jaundice, dehydration, or illness.
Call your pediatrician if you feel the baby is not waking enough to feed. Also call a lactation consultant to help you to make breastfeeding more effective and to preserve your milk supply.
Dehydration may be noted by baby making less than expected amounts of urine and stool, a dry mouth, and a seeming panic to eat.
Jaundice can be noted as the yellowish undertone of the whites of the eyes, palms, and skin that starts at the head and progresses downward towards the toes. If your infant is jaundiced, they need to be seen by the pediatrician.
Engorgement is a combination of increased blood, fluid, and milk in your breast. Your breast will feel hard, possibly hot, and painful. The most effective relief for engorgement is removal of milk from your breast.
• Breastfeed your baby often; at least every two hours. Do not skip any feedings.
• Allow your baby to feed on one breast as long as they want. While the baby is feeding, try to massage hard lumps in your breasts to facilitate drainage.
• If you notice your other breast leaking milk while feeding, let it leak. If baby does not want to feed on the other side, express just enough milk to feel comfortable using a pump or your hand.
If you baby feeds well, but your breasts still feel hard and uncomfortable:
• After breastfeeding, use cold compresses or cabbage leaves to relieve the swelling. Cabbage leaves can be room temperature or cold. Switch them when they wilt.
• You can take Ibuprofen, which can reduce inflammation.
• If your baby has trouble latching on because your cozy, soft breast has become a hard soccer ball, try using a warm compress on your breast to help soften it, and hand express for a few minutes. Try re-latching after suckling for a few minutes to get a deeper latch.
©2006 Diane Wiessinger, MS, IBCLC www.normalfed.com Edited by Cheryl Bradshaw BSN, RN, IBCLC
Call the Midwife Center at 142-321-6880, ext 6 to speak to a nurse for breastfeeding support. Or call the front office to schedule an appointment with our Lactation Consultant.
The number one reason for nipple pain is positioning problems that lead to a shallow latch. The most common positioning problem occurs when an infant is positioned too far to the birthing parent’s side causing them to flex their chin in order to latch.
If you notice that your baby’s chin is flexed rather than slightly extended, and the nose is covered by the breast rather than free, try moving your baby more toward the opposite breast. This will lift the chin, free the nose, and press the chin into your breast.
If you see that your nipple looks deformed when released from baby’s mouth, it means the latch is too shallow. Try re-latching for a comfortable latch.
Try to alternate positions at the breast. After you are done breastfeeding, care for your nipples by leaving them open to air for a few minutes and then use either your own milk or nipple creams to help them heal.