Breastfeeding and Ditching the Nipple Shield
Back in January, I opened up about our breastfeeding journey. The response I got was so encouraging and so many mamas have reached out to me and shared their journeys and struggles since! If you’re in the group of people that had little to no problems learning to breastfeed with your little one, that’s amazing! But you are the minority. The truth is, breastfeeding is not easy. It doesn’t come “natural” for most mamas and babies. Yes, there are reflexes and some kind of biological signals that our bodies give us to get started, but it takes work.
I wanted to share a little update on our journey since my first post. It hasn’t been without its hiccups, but we did catch on and are doing so much better! My goal is that other mamas are encouraged and realize that everyones journey is so different. I want to preface this post by saying the most important thing is that your baby is fed — whether that is breastfeeding full-time, part-time, exclusive pumping, formula feeding, or a combination. There is no shame, no failure, no “right” way to feed your baby! Anyone who tells you differently can get out of town! This is our story.
If you haven’t read my first post, you can do that here. I left off at a place in the journey where we were needing a nipple shield to nurse. Although my little one was getting enough nourishment and growing well, I loathed the nipple shield. It was so inconvenient and personally I felt like it was ruining the breastfeeding experience. At first I felt guilty for feeling this way, but after hearing so many stories from mamas who had similar struggles, I felt empowered and motivated! I wanted to keep working to get off the shield, and I knew we could do it. I left with this expectation for myself and my baby — let go of your expectations and let the journey write itself.
“I hope that one day it gets easier and we can have the freedom to breastfeed wherever and whenever we need to (without depending on the shield). It’s encouraging to see the progress we have made and I feel hopeful when she is able to finish a feeding without the shield. If we don’t reach the goal of being 100% off the shield, that’s ok too. My girl is still growing and being nourished, whether thats full time breastfeeding, pumping, or a combination of both. It’s our journey and we will write it as we go.”
After sharing that first post, I read through every comment and story sent to me. I dialogued with other mamas and found so much encouragement and camaraderie. I decided to stop trying to do everything without help, and made an appointment to go back to our lactation consultant. I also let go of the instagram worthy experience and decided that being real and vulnerable was the best way for us to make progress. We made an appointment that week to address the nipple shield.
The following week, we went to the lactation consultant (LC) and had an amazing session. I had to explain to the LC the struggles we were having at home because, of course, we didn’t have any issues during that nursing session. My little one latched expertly without the shield. It’s funny how it goes that way… baby girl had to show off that she was capable when she had an audience. I told her about the steps we had been taking to learn to nurse without the nipple shield and left the session with more confidence that we were on the right track. The thing that really made the difference and helped us finally ditch the shield for good was when the LC told me, “one day you’re going to ‘accidentally lose’ the shield, and when it happens, have the confidence to know you’ll do just fine.”
Leaving that session I realized the fatal flaw that was keeping us from progressing was my belief that we couldn’t do it. I don’t want to neglect that the shield made a huge difference for us in the beginning, but it was my insecurity that ended up being the biggest thing holding us back from nursing without it. That evening, I put the shield in our kitchen drawer and never went back. My mindset had changed and because of my newfound confidence, we were able to nurse without the shield.
Even though things seemed to click for us around 6 or 7 weeks, I want to say that we still had struggles even after ditching the shield. Some feedings went smoother than others. Some were really difficult. Even four months in, we sometimes have problems we have to learn to work through together. The point is, each day we are learning and getting better!
Tips for losing the nipple shield
I want to share some things that I learned about weaning from the nipple shield, and hopefully help other mamas that might be trying to do the same thing.
Make sure you and your baby are BOTH ready. I got super discouraged when we kept trying to nurse without the shield early on and it just wasn’t happening, so we took a break. For us, somewhere around 6 weeks is when I felt ready to try introducing the natural nipple again.
It can take time. Be patient with yourself and your baby. I’d like to say that if you do X, Y and Z you’ll be able to get off the shield. But after talking with lots of mamas that have used nipple shields, there is a wide range of timeframes that it took to wean off the shield. Some babies do it in a day and some never get off it. Have grace for yourself through the process.
Your baby is going to need to get used to your natural nipple. Try getting baby familiar with your breast without the pressure of needing to feed (aka not when baby is hungry or tired). We started to take baths together and increased skin-to-skin time in those low pressure situations.
Offer the breast without the shield first, if baby gets upset, use the shield. You can also try offering the natural nipple again when switching sides. Again, if baby gets upset, go back to the shield. It is a process.
Be consistent. Even if you feel like you’re not making progress, be consistent with offering your breast each feeding. Recognize that tears (for your baby and you) will happen and are totally normal! All the emotions that come along with the journey are also totally warranted.
Breastfeeding is such a journey and is so different for every mama and every baby. As I said before, have grace for yourself and allow your story to unfold how it will. There’s no perfect way to feed your baby. Only you know what’s best for yourself and your baby — so listen to yourself first! You are doing amazing, mama.
xoxo,
Miranda