*sigh* me again- how to fix bad attachment?

DS is 12.5 months old and we have never had attachment problems before. He's started attaching himself and was doing fine for the last month but last night and all day today his attachment has been terrible. It's like he's only taking half my nipple in his mouth and it HURTS! It stings like he's sucking the wrong part of the areola (ITMS?) and when I un attach him because I cant handle it my nipple is flat.

So I want to know-

Why all of a sudden is there an issue? Nothing has changed that I'm aware of. He's been teething for a week or so, could it be this?

How do I fix it? I've tried going back to basics and attaching him myself the way I learnt from the hossy vid (worked perfectly when we were first learning) but he pushes it back out and ends up with only half my nipple again.

:help: please, it's ouchy and I want to fix it before it becomes a big problem!

No idea Heather - apparently I'm a jungle gym now instead of a feedmachine :lol: legs twisting all over while attached and feeding - makes for some ouchy nipples at times (sometimes rather stretched nipples so that it hurts)
Happens particularly in the afternoons for me now - used to attach and feed beautifully all the time; now ... not so much in the afternoons.

Maybe he's not actually hungry?? I've found DS sometimes bites when he's tired but not hungry at night so I can't feed him to sleep but have to slightly rock/bounce him on my knees while DS is laying across them. DH can get him to sleep if this happens laying up along his chest but my BBs (large ones) get in the way for it to work. Usually ends up quicker for me to bounce him than to swap especially if DH has to go out (like tonight for tennis)

Just thought I couldn't let you have no replies tonight and offer a possibility / sympathy for the ouchies :D

It must be frustrating to be having problems now after doing so well for so long! It isn't that unusual though for attachment to go off a bit once they get bigger (and move around a lot more!!). One tip is to make sure he is nice and close when he feeds - it is still best to have his chin touching the breast and his body as close to yours as you can. What position does he feed in now? Many older babies like to sit to feed (stand to feed, do somersaults while feeding...) and this is fine (except the somersaults really) but when the attachment has gone a bit awry it might help to go back to basics for a day or two and try feeding horizontally to get the attachment right again (ok, I said try!).

If you need to keep pulling him off until he gets it right that's fine. At his age it is also work explaining it to him - tell him his mouth needs to be open properly when he attaches or it hurts you, and explain why you are pulling him off. You would be amazed at what they understand at that age.

All the best hun :hug:

I just wanted to agree with MR that it's not uncommon to have attachment issues with an older bub/toddler. I think that because so few children are bf as toddlers it comes as a complete surprise and there's not a lot of good advice out there. :(

If nothing else, time will solve this problem. We had a problem just before age two :rolleyes: and we tried everything to fix it. Eventually it all just worked again, no pain, no problem. I think our problem might just have been the size of my toddler and her mouth and a mismatch with my bbs. Getting the right position must have just not been possible for us until she grew.

There's another couple of threads around here with mums who've had the same issues as you are talking about. I'll see if I can find them for you.

Oops kept meaning to reply but never got round to it...

Hi Leckert :) we were belly buddies I think.
Thanks for replying- lol @ Jungle gym. Isaac's started that too. We have sitting up feeds some days lol it looks so funny. He's definately hungry, often he frantically tries to attach himself before I've even undone my bra lol! It's worst when he falls asleep and slips off a bit.

MR - I tried holding him closer and it helped a little, he still tried to push my nipple out but couldn't as much because of how close he was itms?
I'm feeding to sleep most feeds so he's horizontal, sometimes football to begin with if he's being difficult.
I've been pulling him off as soon as I notice the attachments wrong I tried explaining a few times too, it didn't seem to make a difference but I'll keep at it, he'll learn what I mean eventually I guess.

Jennifer- thanks :)
I did do a search but it didn't find anything relivent (sp?). Then again it was on my phone and it's pretty useless when it comes to searching so... :dunno:

You might also want to try experimenting with giving him something to play with or look at while he's feeding. I ended up putting picture books in strange places at one stage!

good luck!

Thanks Kmn- I was thinking about that tonight while he was trying to remove my lips with his fingernails. Lol. I haven't tried it yet though. He goes to sleep at every feed so I'm a bit worried it's mess that up...