Expert: Joanna Liberty - 1/31/2012

Question
My friend just had her son he was born at 37 weeks. She has been trying to get him to nurse since he was born, even talked with a consultant ( whom wasn't helpful). He has a good latch but after a few suckles stops, it's like his tongue is getting in the way. Tonight we decided to let him latch on to me to see how it went my nipples protrude more then her's ( I'm currently nursing my 1 year old) he even has difficulties with the bottle. We are wondering what we can do and try to help him with nursing. She really wants to breastfeed him especially since her first son passed away last February from SIDS and was not able to breastfeed him.  Thank you

Answer
Near term babies who are born before 40 weeks can having problems with latching and sucking that are similar to those born pre-term. The best thing that you can do to help her is to teach her a good position and ways to encourage her newborn to suck, rather than having him nurse from you.

Some great resources to find information include La Leche League leaders. If there isn't one near you, it may help to refer her to the website: http://www.llli.org/nb/nblatch.html

There is a great article that I think she would find most helpful that talks about getting the newborn who hasn't been breastfeeding well to get back to the breast: http://www.llli.org/faq/back.html

It's also important to not offer pacifiers. Pacifiers are artificial nipples which get in the way of breastfeeding. The baby learning to suck needs to learn on the breast - it will help baby learn and also help to build mom's milk supply.

To sum up - encourage her to use good positioning to help the baby latch, to not use a pacifier, and to try to find a local La Leche League leader. You may also just want to find another breastfeeding helper in your area - doulas, midwives, and lactation consultants are great choices that may help more than the first person she tried to talk to about the problem.