When Charlie was a month old, I had a lactation consultant come to our home.  Though I met with several of the on staff lactation consultants at the hospital after Charlie was born, the experience of having a one on one session at home was infinitely more helpful.  Up until that point I was breastfeeding a couple times a day, but pumping most of the time because it was so painful to breastfeed and Charlie wasn’t getting enough milk from breastfeeding alone.  Luckily because I had been pumping all along, I was able to keep up my milk supply.  My lactation consultant told me that by the time a lot of moms contact her, they’ve been supplementing with formula, or they haven’t been pumping and their milk supply has dried up.  If you’re having problems breastfeeding, I highly recommend having a lactation consultant come to your home asap.

I knew that Charlie had a poor latch, which is the most common issue that women have when it comes to breastfeeding. If your baby has a poor latch, they get little milk while you end up with painfully sore nipples.  The lactation consultant showed me how to improve Charlie’s latch — I wasn’t holding him close enough to my body, my boob should be touching his chin, and I was leaning into him too much rather than pulling his head into me.  She brought a scale to weigh Charlie before and after he breastfed to see exactly how much he was eating.  Even after he had a good latch, he only got 1 ounce of milk.

Charlie had a couple of issues that made breastfeeding more difficult.  He had laryngomalacia, or a soft, underdeveloped larynx.  Most of the time this doesn’t cause any significant problems, and usually goes away on its own by the age of 2.  Laryngomalacia causes partial airway obstruction, so Charlie was having trouble with not only breastfeeding, but bottle feeding as well.  Whereas most babies will suck, suck, swallow, and breathe rhythmically, Charlie had trouble coordinating this pattern.  As a result, when he was breastfeeding, he’d unlatch many times, get upset and then have trouble latching on again. He also had trouble with taking a bottle and always made funny breathing sounds, and sometimes coughed, sneezed or choked when milk residue got caught in his airway.  The flow from the Medela and Born Free bottles we’d been using were just way too fast for him, so we made the switch to Playtex drop-ins on the lactation consultant’s recommendation, which seemed to help.

The lactation consultant said that Charlie also had a ton of tension on the entire left side of his body, which may have been caused torticollis, or the favoring of his head to one side.  This tension may have been caused by him running out of room in the womb and being in one position for a long time, or the way he was delivered via c section. She suggested we see a craniosacral therapist for a couple of sessions.  There isn’t that much information available online for this holistic massage treatment, but midwives, doulas, and lactation consultants seem to be really big fans.  It can be used to treat problems associated with breastfeeding, hard/fast/slow labor, c section, favoring turning head to one side, breathing difficulties and much more.  However my pediatrician did not believe in craniosacral therapy, so I decided not to pursue it.

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Finally Charlie has always had some swallowing issues, and I’m pretty sure that it affected breastfeeding.  Up until 18 months, Charlie had an extremely sensitive gag reflex and wouldn’t eat chunky solid foods, and he threw up regularly.  I talked to a swallowing specialist that said this starts out as developmental, but can become behavioral if it’s not treated.  Luckily Charlie eventually overcame it on his own.

The lactation consultant said that due to these issues, I had a long road ahead of me when it came to breastfeeding.  I continued to breastfeed and pump until Charlie was about 5 months old, and then I exclusively pumped until Charlie was 9 months old.  Pumping wasn’t that bad because I was able to increase my supply enough that I could do it a couple times a day, and have more than enough to freeze.  But I definitely want to do it differently with Olive.  She seems to have no problem latching on correctly, but it’s still definitely a challenge.  I do think it’s much easier for her than it was for Charlie, so I hope I have a more successful breastfeeding experience this time around because I’m really committed to making it to the year mark!

Did you see a lactation consultant?  Were they helpful in helping you to breastfeed?