Flat Nipple Correction - Niplette or Shells?
I realized with my first that I have Semi-Flat Nipples.. they have times where they protrude but for the most part they’re flat. Next issue: I’m well endowed at 38DDD. Next issue: naturally, being that size, the girls are not perky.. at all 😂 Final issue: I have large areolas making it difficult for nipple shields to stay in place (they don’t adhere well for me - I tried multiple sizes, they just don’t work)
Picture this: attempting to hold a tiny infant with head 2x smaller than my boob, hold my boob upright and bring to his mouth, then hold nipple shield in place because it keeps moving. If you lost count that’s 3 hands - I only have 2.
All that background info considered, as you can imagine nursing was a horrible experience for us. I wanted to nurse more than anything - I spent two weeks crying at every feed seeing how frustrated my baby was getting because he was now hungry (after unsuccessfully trying for a while BEFORE he was truly hungry) and having to bottle feed him whatever I pumped. We even tried doing a combo of the shield and syringe to encourage latch - no luck. We ended up throwing in the towel on nursing and I moved on to EP’ing, which I did for 7 months when I made the choice to ween. It was worth it and I had an amazing supply (pumped 40-42oz per day) but preparing for our second I know being able to just nurse will make life 10x easier. I remember timing my errands or having to plan trips around pumping, mainly because I couldn’t just put my infant to boob to give myself relief needed.
I’ve been reading about using the Niplette or Medela soft shells to correct inverted or flat nipples before or during pregnancy. Has anyone done this and had success?
Achieve your health goals from period to parenting.