Does a Nipple Shield Give Baby Less Milk

A nipple shield is a thin, silicone teat that can be placed over a mother's nipple and may help a baby who is having difficulty learning to breastfeed. Holes in the tip allow milk to menses into the baby's mouth. A nipple shield can be used temporarily to help establish breastfeeding or in some cases to help ensure that breastfeeding continues. A shield provides a house stimulus at the roof of a baby's oral fissure where the soft and hard palate meet. This can aid him suckle more effectively.

If your baby is not nursing at all, or is nursing ineffectively despite improving zipper and  increasing milk flow, a nipple shield may help by providing a firmer stimulus in your baby's mouth. A nipple shield may be a useful tool in some situations. When nothing else works, information technology tin be a temporary mode to found and maintain breastfeeding.

A nipple shield may exist helpful if

• Your baby is struggling to learn how to breastfeed
• Yous have apartment or inverted nipples, or very soft breasts equally it can aid maintain nipple shape
• Your baby thrusts his tongue, has a retracted tongue or has neurological issues
• Your baby was built-in prematurely
• Your baby needs extra stimulus to prompt sucking

In these situations, a nipple shield can

• Give a babe the opportunity to learn to breastfeed
• Allow a infant who breastfeeds ineffectively to accept more milk direct at the breast. This can be specially helpful for premature babies
• Avoid or reduce the need to limited milk and utilize cups or bottles
• Help keep breastfeeding going

Not a magic solution

It is very important to seek skilled help with positioning, zipper and any other problems if you are planning to use nipple shields or are already using them. Helping your baby become a deep latch at the breast is the key to constructive and comfortable nursing with or without a nipple shield. A shield cannot correct underlying problems, peculiarly those of sore and damaged nipples or depression milk production. And if your infant is non fastened well he may compress your nipple, causing damage and intense pain. When your baby latches on deeply at the breast he gets enough of milk. Also, as you wean from the shield he will be able to adapt to breastfeeding effectively and comfortably without it.

Source: Us Breastfeeding Committee

Fifty-fifty with a nipple shield, your baby may still need assist to acquire to breastfeed well. Sometimes simply a small adjustment to the style you concur your baby makes a large deviation. You may discover the suggestions and pictures in Comfortable Breastfeeding helpful. If you lot cannot become comfy or breastfeeds are taking an hour or more, seek aid from an LLL Leader who tin give you personalised suggestions.

Holding your infant in skin-to-skin contact tin brand a large difference too. With or without a shield, laid back or 'natural' breastfeeding positions (see higher up) tin can be a great help in encouraging your baby to latch on effectively, besides as existence comfortable for you. You can either lie down or recline with your baby on top of you and with his whole front against you and his body completely supported past yours. Such positions also leave both your hands gratuitous to shape your breast and help him latch.

If your infant won't breastfeed

Don't panic! Some babies have time to learn. However, babies volition often latch on and suckle spontaneously if they tin snuggle up shut to their mother'southward bare chest for periods of time. Try letting your babe prevarication on your body equally you recline and so that both his breast and tummy are confronting y'all. This kind of contact, known every bit Biological Nurturing™, or laid back breastfeeding usually stimulates a baby's instinct to attach and suckle well at the breast. In such positions, babies can as well latch on when sleepy or even asleep. Sentry for signs your infant is stirring and gently encourage feeding. If he is not breastfeeding  effectively or at all y'all will need to limited your milk for him. This will help maintain your milk production while he learns to breastfeed. An LLL Leader can requite you tips for effective milk expression.

Is he getting enough milk?

Offer frequent feeds and monitor wet and dirty nappies for evidence your baby is getting plenty of milk. His weight will demand checking regularly—as oft equally every three days for premature babies. For more information see Is My Baby Getting Enough Milk?

Bank check your breasts

Areas that aren't being tuckered well may appear bloated, sore or red. Care for early signs of localised engorgement to avoid a blocked duct or mastitis.

Practicaliti es
Type and fit
Modern nipple shields are fabricated of clear ultra thin silicone. Dissimilar makes vary in flexibility. Some shields have a cutting out department, but these may not stay in identify besides as a total nipple shield. Full nipple shields practice not bother babies or bear upon their breathing. Nipple shields come up in dissimilar sizes but choice is limited. Both the width of the tip section and the shape of the apartment part vary and you may need to experiment to find which size and shape you adopt. A comfortable fit is very important and some mothers need more than one size of nipple shield due to differences between their breasts.

Applying
Stretching the shield onto the breast can help it stay in place. Yous can as well moisten the shield'due south edges or warm it with hot water to aid prevent it moving. Turn the nipple shield almost inside out before applying it. Smooth information technology onto the breast, starting well away from the nipple in the surface area where your babe'due south lower jaw volition latch on. Stretch the shield over your breast, with the tip centred over your nipple. The nipple shield should be tight against your breast with your nipple extending into the tip. If necessary, you tin can express milk into the tip or drip expressed milk onto the exterior to encourage your babe to latch on.

Turning a nipple shield almost inside out before applying helps describe your nipple in. Put on your nipple and then smooth the edges onto your breast.

Cleaning
If you and/or your baby are in hospital, wash the nipple shield thoroughly in hot soapy water and sterilise it earlier each use. If you have a good for you, full-term infant and are at dwelling house, cleaning with hot soapy water or washing in a dishwasher on a hot cycle will be sufficient. Shields should exist dried thoroughly before use and stored in a clean, sealed container or pocketbook.

A faster flow
Swallowing encourages sucking, which will assistance keep milk flowing. A babe who has get used to a continuous fast menstruation from a canteen may need help to persist with breastfeeding. Hand expressing for a few minutes can encourage a good menses of milk before your infant latches on. You tin even hand express milk into your infant's mouth to encourage him to latch on or keep him nursing when your milk flows more than slowly.

Endeavor breast compression

1. Support your chest with 1 paw—thumb on i side, fingers on the other.
2. Wait while your infant breastfeeds actively, his jaw moving all the way to his ear. When he stops swallowing, compress your breast firmly. Hold information technology squeezed until he stops nursing actively and then release your manus.
3. Rotate your mitt effectually your breast and repeat pace 2 on different areas of the breast as needed. Go gently—this should non injure.

Use a shield with a nursing supplementer

If your baby needs actress milk, a nursing supplementer tin can be used to deliver this through a tube as  your baby breastfeeds. This avoids the need to bottle feed. The end of the supplementer tube can be placed either inside or outside the shield. Consult an LLL Leader if y'all think a nursing supplementer may be helpful.

Giving up the shields

Nipple shields are intended to be a temporary solution until your baby learns to breastfeed without them. When using a shield, aid your baby to latch on by himself with a wide open oral fissure. This will help him to learn to breastfeed without a shield. Offering your baby some time in pare-to-peel contact every day without a nipple shield so he has the opportunity to latch on if he is able. Information technology can take fourth dimension to wean from shields merely do go along gently trying. Try at times when you and your baby are about comfy and relaxed and there are fewest distractions. Yous can endeavour different methods to see what suits your baby.

• Start with skin-to-skin next to breast without the nipple shield before nursing with the shield.
• Offset a feed with a shield, removing information technology office way through nursing from i chest or when switching breasts.
• Gradually offering the breast without the shield.

DO NOT CUT a silicone shield as this could leave sharp edges that would hurt you and your babe.

Source: United states Breastfeeding Commission

Seek support

Whilst you may be relieved that a nipple shield is enabling your babe to breastfeed, it can exist frustrating if he will not feed without it. Nevertheless, given time and patience, it is usually possible for a baby to learn to breastfeed without the shield. An LLL Leader can be a useful source of support if yous demand to choose, employ and wean from nipple shields.

Written past Karen Butler, Sue Upstone and mothers of La Leche League GB.

Further Reading

The Womanly Art of Breastfeeding. LLLI. London: Pinter & Martin, 2010

Positioning & attachment
Comfortable breastfeeding
Engorged breasts – avoiding and treating
Hand expression of breastmilk
Inverted nipples?
Is my infant getting enough milk?
My babe needs more milk
My babe won't breastfeed
Nipple confusion?
Nipple pain – why and what to practise

LLLI Resources
Nipple shields: new insights

References
The Breastfeeding Answer Book. Tertiary edition. Schaumburg IL: LLLI, 2003.
Breastfeeding and Human Lactation. Fourth Edition. Sudbury, MA: Jones and Bartlett, 2010.
Supporting Sucking Skills in Breastfeeding Infants. Watson Genna, C. Sudbury, MA: Jones and Bartlett, 2008.

This information is bachelor in printed class from the LLLGB Shop

Copyright LLLGB 2016

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Source: https://www.laleche.org.uk/nipple-shields/

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