I need some help giving advice to a friend

[Vix920]

I've been nursing my son for almost 2 years - he'll be two on April 1st. I've been very fortunate that breastfeeding came very naturally to both of us and we didn't really experience any stumbling blocks. I have a friend who is having trouble nursing her newborn. What advice do you think I can give her? Her son is having trouble latching on and he is about a week old. He was born almost 2 weeks early but was a very healthy size. She is almost to the point of giving up and I'm trying to help her from long distance. She has contacted a LLL person in her area but didn't feel like she got good advice. What are some ideas I can give her to help him latch on? She said he is pressing his tongue to the roof of his mouth and not opening wide enough. Thanks!

[collinsmommy0]

Has he been checked for a tongue or lip tie?

She probably needs help from an IBCLC to fix the latch

[Vix920]

He's not tongue-tied and the lactation consultant at the hospital told her his latch is fine.

[lanamerlita219]

My dd had the same problem. I came to the conclusion that her mouth was too small, she was doing the same thing. When we had numerous failed attempts to latch nursing the normal way, I put her in the football position when she latched I would give her ONE minute then I would switch her back to cradling her. She eventually got used to it and now is doing great. 

[gdiamante]

Visual aids are often good... here are some videos.

http://www.breastfeedinginc.ca/content.php?pagename=videos

She should try to get in with a lactation consultant for hands on help.

[sreichelt26]

Have her watch youtube videos or find and IBCLC. LC's at the hospital are sometimes "LC's" or nurses who watched a video.

When you say he's having problems latching on, do you mean he won't latch properly, or he latches then pulls off and fusses. Cuz the latter could be an OAL problem.

Quoting Vix920:

He's not tongue-tied and the lactation consultant at the hospital told her his latch is fine.

[Vix920]

Quoting sreichelt26:

the way she describes it is that he keeps his tongue at the roof of his mouth and she can't get her nipple between his tongue and the roof of his mouth. I'm not familiar with the acronym OAL. If anyone is in the Memphis, TN area, can you recommend someone for her to contact? I'm in Michigan, so my resources are too far away to help her directly.

[sreichelt26]

OAL is overactive letdown. Here's some info on that.

http://kellymom.com/bf/supply/fast-letdown.html

Not sure about the tongue thing...

Quoting Vix920:

Quoting sreichelt26:

the way she describes it is that he keeps his tongue at the roof of his mouth and she can't get her nipple between his tongue and the roof of his mouth. I'm not familiar with the acronym OAL. If anyone is in the Memphis, TN area, can you recommend someone for her to contact? I'm in Michigan, so my resources are too far away to help her directly.