Tuesday, August 04, 2009
Boob Update
After consulting the top two experts in the field, at least of those I can access, these are things I've heard in the last 24 hours:
-  I have thrush.
-  I don't have thrush.
-  I should hold the baby's head and bring it onto the breast.
-  I should never hold the baby's head and bring it onto the breast.
-  I should use lanolin.
-  I shouldn't use lanolin.
-  I should try the football hold.
-  The football hold doesn't work.
-  I should let my nipples air dry.
-  I shouldn't let my nipples air dry.
-  Nipple shields are damaging and useless.
-  Nipple shields could solve all my problems.
And so on.
Here's what I'm thinking: after almost three weeks of breastfeeding hell, a full course of every thrush treatment known to humankind, some pretty hefty research and many, many consulatations, here's the most likely diagnosis:
I no longer have thrush.  Rather, I now suffer from latch-related vasospasm.  The lactation consultant (yeah, Tyler, it's that Linda) who was over again last night finally took a long look in Mac's mouth and noticed a very high palate and a shorter tongue.  Come to think of it, I've never seen my little guy stick his tongue beyond his gums.   Accordingly, we are trying to retrain his latch using a nipple shield, and I'm also going to have him checked for tongue-tie.
I am simply running out of any other explanations, and so is everyone else.
Labels: Breastfeeding, Mac
posted by Working From Home Today
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| 3 comments: 
 Family Compass ~ 1:24 PMFamily Compass ~ 1:25 PMGood luck with the shield. I considered framing mine when I was finished with it to honour its months of service.
Tyler ~ 4:28 PMMy first WFHT shout-out!  Nice!post a comment ~ Subscribe to Post Comments [Atom] ~ main page | 


