my problem
I have flat nipples and I knew that breast feeding would be difficult. I just didn´t know how much... I had a terrible problem trying to latch my son on my nipple. We tried every position possible. At the beginning he just screamed and screamed (first day) and then he became lethargic. When we were still in the hospital we asked for the help of a lactation consultant, while she was in the room, holding the baby against me, he would latch and eat. But after she left, the battle would start all over again. Finally we went to a different lactation consultant that gave us silicon shields. That changed every thing, my son was able to latch and eat. She told me that I have to pump in order to prevent milk decrease, which I did. We tried to get him off the shields after two weeks, and it didn´t work. we waited another week and tried again. By the time he was four weeks old, he was feeding from my nipple, latching correctly, and we both were very happy. (then the colic started, but that is another story...) Now my son is almost 4 months old, and we both enjoy breast feeding very much. I am a working mom, and I intend to do all that I can to make sure that he is on breast milk only, until it is time to introduce solids. By the way, I currently reside in the USA, and went through the whole ordeal there.
