BFing Moms...nipple shields?

I just spoke to a friend who had a baby 6 days ago. A nurse at the hospital recommended she use nipple shields because the baby was having trouble latching cause she had small/flat nipples. So now she has been using them for 6 days and the baby cries hystrically if she tries to feed her without them. I assume this is like nipple confusion??? How to fix the prob? She will be seeing an LC in a day or so. The only idea I had was to try and get the baby to latch on while she is still asleep just to get her used to her nipples....
thoughts???

My friend is pulling her hair out right now with disappointment and frustration.

Re: BFing Moms...nipple shields?

The LC I saw recommended the nipple shields and told me to continue to use them as long as breastfeeding continued. Unfortunatly, DS wouldn't latch on with them either.
Does she not want to continue using them?

Re: BFing Moms...nipple shields?

I had to use it and continued to do so until my oversupply resolved itself. It took a while but the baby probably cannot latch well without the shield at this point.

FM if any personal questions!

Re: BFing Moms...nipple shields?

I had trouble getting DS to latch on because of flat nipples too. My LC almost had me try the nipple shields, but then luckily DS started latching on. She said you don't want to use the shields if you don't have to because then you have to worry about tring to wean them off of the shield. I don't really know how you would go about doing that, but one thing that might help is to wear nipple shells for maybe about a 1/2 hour before feeding. They're different than the shields. You take them off before feeding and they help to draw out the nipple to make it easier for the baby to latch on. Also she could try to kind of roll the nipple between her fingers before trying to get the baby to latch on and also if she has a pump to pump for a few minutes before feeding to help make the nipple easier to latch on to. I know I also used to have to kind of pinch and flatten one of my nipples while DS was latching on. It was frustrating in the beginning and sometimes would take 15-20 minutes just trying to get him to latch on, but now we're doing great and DS latches on very easily.

Re: BFing Moms...nipple shields?

Has she tried putting the nipple shield on and then takin it off mid feeding? This si what a LC recommended to me, but for mine it didn't work.

Re: BFing Moms...nipple shields?

I am convinced that stupid nipple shield is what ruined my chances of BF-ing Ava. I would definitely tell your friend to try the shells. They supposedly draw out the nipple.

Re: BFing Moms...nipple shields?

She would like to stop using the nipple shields. I think she feels that it is just not the same thing...plus its a pain. She doesn't see how she would be able to nurse in public while having to put the shields on. So most of you just kept on using the shields all the time?

I'll tell her about trying to take the shield off mid feeding to see how that goes. Plus all the nipple "tweaking" that she could try before hand to draw out the nipple. She mentioned something about the shells butnot sure if she has used them.

I know she is really hoping the baby will learn to latch on directly

Re: BFing Moms...nipple shields?

Tell her not to give up. I did, and I feel badly for it. Ava was just so frustrated with the stupid nipple shield that she wouldn't even try to latch on after that And I didn't even have an issues with my nipples (TMI, sorry!), it's just that she had a very immature s-ck reflex and the LC I saw had me use the shield to help her with that, but it ended up ruining my BF-ing experience.

Re: BFing Moms...nipple shields?

i just found this about weaning from a nipple shield link