Experience of Niplette?

[jennyl1980]

Hiya! I struggled with breastfeeding my little girl 2 years ago, but am determined to have more success this time round. One issue I had was that my nipples are quite small and flat, so this time I’ve invested in a pair of niplette suction cups to draw my nipples out in prep for breastfeeding.

First of all, I’d really love to hear about anyone else’s experience of using these? Secondly, the instructions say that they’re not recommended for use in the 3rd trimester - which is a bit of a bummer - as I only got them last weekend and I am already 26+2. What I don’t understand is why they’re not recommended for 3rd trimester? Does anyone know or can hazard a guess?

Any advice is gratefully received!

Xx

[Hidden]

I’ve not experienced niplettes but I think your not suppose to use them in your 3rd trimester as it can start early labour.

[Hidden]

They advise not using in the third trimester as it could potentially cause contractions, but only the same amount as sex would cause. So if you are still having sex, don't worry about nipple stimulation.

As for your nipples, they are not really an issue for breast feeding, it's called BREAST feeding not NIPPLE feeding baby's mouth should cover the whole nipple and be touching some of the actual breast.

There is a very high likelhood that your daughter had a tongue and/ Or a lip tie which is the most common reason babies struggle to latch and why mum's experience pain whilst feeding. Breast feeding should NEVER hurt. Once your little one is born ask for someone who is properly trained in identifying ties to assess baby's mouth. Most doctors, midwives and health visitors are not trained to recognise them so don't let someone who doesn't know what they are looking for tell you everything is fine.

If there are ties present, push to get them corrected with a laser rather than clipping, clipping is more common as it is cheaper, but has a huge chance of reattachment and then there is scar tissue and more of an issue than there was before. A tie is a tie, even if you are told it is only slight and shouldn't cause an issue, push for correction, if it doesn't cause an issue right away with breast feeding, it can cause issues further down the line like reflux, colic, excess gassiness, gagging on solid foods, teeth coming through crooked, slow speech development. And things like migraines and digestion issues in adults.

Happy to answer any questions xx

[Myrto]

I slightly disagree with izzyp90. It's of course breast and not nipple feeding but I have noticed with mine when she was newborn she had to sense where the nipple is in order to latch accordingly and that helped us both to establish a successful breastfeeding. Unfortunately I don't have an experience with a niplette. My nipple are rather flat and my baby licked them to make the "show" before she latched. So indeed try to solve this problem and also check for ehat izzyp90 suggests.

They don't recommend to be used on the 3rd trimester because it can stimulate labour. The day I decided to rub my nipples because I was worried to be induced my waters broke 30 mins later! But I think it was more a conciedence because I was 40weeks plus 2 days.

Good luck!

[jennyl1980]

Thanks for the advice guys. I had a few issues with breastfeeding last time, massive bloodloss (over 2 litres) didn’t help with my supply, then trying to keep my little girl awake whilst breastfeeding was tough. I pumped like crazy between feeds as advised, but my supply went down and down each day not up! It was incredibly frustrating and upsetting, and as much as I can say my little girl didn’t suffer from having formula from 7 weeks, I’ve always regretted giving up when I did. But she was only 6lbs at birth and she lost so much weight with my poor breastfeeding attempt that I was having to get her weighed every 3 days and they were threatening to take us both back into hospital 😢 so I panicked and swapped to formula so I could definitely see how much she was consuming. Anyway, this time I know a little more, so I’m going to do a few things different, drink more fluids, eat more super-breastfeeding foods and persevere for as long as possible. Fingers crossed ladies, and thanks again for your advice, it’s very much appreciated. Xx