Mothers should be extra cautious during breastfeeding to prevent cracking and infections to nipples. Women who suffer from nipple abnormalities such as inverted nipples may have problems during breastfeeding as the baby finds it difficult to take the feed. Women who have inverted nipples should take care during the last month of pregnancy and wear "shell" to allow the tissues to stretch out. While nursing, mothers should try to make sure that the newborn gets enough milk to have a normal growth.
There are many problems of latching such as difficulty in holding the baby to provide it the best comfortable positions, soreness, pain, infections and inappropriate production of milk. Women may suffer from sagginess, if they do not hold the baby properly, although sagginess can be caused by other reasons such as age, weight gain during pregnancy and pull of gravity.
1. To start lactation, the baby should be held too close to the nipples to give the feed. The baby itself searches for nipples and once it starts sucking, you may find it easy to give the feed. The baby's mouth should cover the areola to get the feed.
2. Take a highly nutritious diet to give appropriate amount of feed to the baby. You can drink milk to provide the baby with adequate amount of milk. You should not eat anything unhealthy because it goes into the stomach of the baby through the milk and the newborn may not be able to digest it, resulting in stomach disorders. If you do not take adequate amount of nutrition, the baby may latch on for long and you may suffer from soreness.
3. Clean the breasts with fresh water. Do not apply harmful creams and lotions, which can cause infections. You can use water dips in case the breasts are sore. Other remedies for sore nipples are application of tea bags and ice cubes.
4. Do not latch from only one side. Keep shifting the baby from one side to other to prevent stress on tissues of one side. You should change breastfeeding position to find out the best position of the baby.
5. Before feeding, you can hand express milk, to see the amount of milk coming out of the busts and it also helps in stimulating milk production. If you suffer from soreness, you can do milk expression with hand or pump, and store milk in bottle, to give it to the baby.
6. To prevent leakage, you can use extra breast pads and keep changing the pads.
7. Prevent the nipples form the friction of the bra and wear only cotton bra.
8. In case you suffer from fever, redness or nipples or pus, you should contact a medical practitioner.
You should keep the nipples dry and prevent it from gathering moisture as it can become a breeding ground for infections. Mothers should take adequate amount of vitamins and minerals to allow it to be transferred to the baby. You can sit in sunlight to get vitamin D and for vitamin B, you can take capsules of B complex.
