[I'mBeachedAs]

Hi allI'm finding recently that my 4.5 week old son has started doing this licking movement when I'm trying to attach him to the breast. It happens when I've started leaking prior to attaching him and he's lapping up the milk. That's all well and good but it means he has trouble getting a wide open mouth for attaching properly. Is there something I can do to help him get that wide mouth so he can attach properly? I persist for as long as it takes to get good attachment but sometimes it takes a while. Thanks in advance :-)

[Tesseract]

Not sure if this will work for you (and it's kind of hard to explain) but I'll give it a go:

First hold your breast so your nipple is pointing at his nose.
Then touch the underside of your breast to his chin. This should cause an open mouth/tongue down reflex. As soon as he opens his mouth wide pull him close and sort of drag/slide your nipple down his top lip (remember your nipple is pointing slightly up) and into his mouth.

I hope that sort of explains it. The key point is that baby should have his chin to your breast first before any other part of his face. Touching the chin with breast (perferably below the areola although if you have large areola then the edge of it might be adequate) should cause an open mouth reflex and facilitate a good mouthfull of breast.

[lucky 2]

That's makes sense to me Tesseract , if the baby's cheeks or lips touch the breast it can also trigger the seeking reflex.
I think focusing on getting baby into positions that will stimulate his natural reflexes (as above) makes more sense than trying to get him to open his mouth wider, iykwim?
The links below might also help-
http://www.rebeccaglover.com.au/
https://www.breastfeeding.asn.au/bfinfo/attachment-breast
http://www.biologicalnurturing.com/#

[I'mBeachedAs]

Thanks! I've started being more careful of having chest to chest, leading with his chin and nose to nipple and it's working! Thanks again

[SarahM72]

If you don't get good attachment with the nice splayed out lips, instead of taking him off and trying again to get the big open mouth, what I used to do was just flick the bottom lip out with my finger while baby is attached. Worked for me. This meant I didn't have to wait for the big open mouth, wasting time encouraging it, I just put the baby on, then adjusted the attachment with my finger until the lips were right.

But hey, I'm lazy.

This post has been edited by SarahM72: 18/01/2013, 11:03 PM

[BeYOUtiful]

I used to move my nipple back and forth against his mouth to help widen his attachment and that worked well. Special k lips I call it

[I'mBeachedAs]

Not sure how that would work SarahM? Having trouble picturing it.

[porkchop's mama]

Nothing to add but thanks for bringing this up, I'mBeachedAs. My 2.5 week old does the same. He also punted his arms against my breast.

[SarahM72]

Not sure how that would work SarahM? Having trouble picturing it.

Okay, so you know how if you don't get the big mouth attachment and the baby's lips, most especially the bottom one, can be curled inwards? Well, if that happens to me I just pull the lip outwards outwards to make it look like the "Special K" lips (thanks Jane05!) by using my finger.

[I'mBeachedAs]

Oh ok I see. Thanks