DD has been in NICU/SCN since June after arriving at 25+6 gestation. Her corrected age is 39 weeks and over the last few weeks I have been putting her to the breast to get her suck feeds established with the goal of bringing her home fully breastfed, with EBM top ups if necessary.

We are having some difficulties getting attachment right and its not doing my nipples any favours so I need some tips and hints from people who might have been through similar. She is a great feeder - she wakes for feeds, roots around a lot and searches for the boob and knows the nipple is there when I position her. She coordinates her suck, breath, swallow routine very well and stays at the breast for a reasonable amount of time.

I believe a lot of the problems relate to her size - she is still only 2.3kg and I know that with time & growth her mouth will get bigger, but I am struggling to get enough boob into her mouth and hence coming out with a pinched nipple and soreness. I've got lots of support from the LCs and nurses in SCN and they're are working through it with me. Today we tried the football hold and it seems to have made a bit of difference but not alot.

I'm sort of wondering if I'm actually trying to hard IYKWIM? You know, the whole shape the breast, position her chin & nose in the right spot etc. etc. its confusing! Maybe I'm intefering with the whole process so I'm going to do a bit of a search for some baby-led attachment stuff now. But today when I just put her near my boob and let her get on herself she just grabbed the end of the nipple and sucked away OUCHIES!

Any suggestions? I know time and growth will help us, but I don't want ruined nipples in the meantime. I am very prone to nipple trauma for some reason - it was my downfall with DS - and I don't want the same experience again.

TIA