Before pregnancy, I didn’t even suspect there was something wrong with my nipples.
But after my baby daughter was born, the doctor told me that my nipples were flat. So my baby couldn’t latch onto the breast, because it was big and tight, and the nipple itself was small.
I couldn’t do anything about it, and my doctor suggested that I use nipple shields.
A nipple shield is a flexible silicone nipple that is worn over the mom's nipple during a feeding.
So we bought the very first nipple shields that caught our eyes. There were two in the kit, 21 mm each. There are also smaller ones available, 15 mm. Actually I see no difference between them.
The shields are pretty cute, transparent and resemble a butterfly. They are also absolutely odorless. There are three holes, through which the milk flows. The shield is soft and pleasant to the touch, the nipple is made of a more solid silicone.
It’s recommended to boil them before use, but I simply sterilized them with boiling water.Its size
For me, it was more convenient to put them on horizontally, so my baby’s nose faced the notched area, which meant that it touched the bare skin.
They stuck to the skin pretty good, however, they started to slide off eventually, so I had to hold the edges with two fingers during breastfeeding.
In our case, these were my lifesaver. My daughter latched on my breast and started sucking, actively. I couldn’t feed her for a day before that and used infant formula.
For two months, I was trying to feed my daughter without shields, but she didn’t want to grasp my nipple. But one day, I succeeded and kept breastfeeding till 18 months. Maybe my nipples became longer, I don’t know.
That’s why I also got these nipple shields before my second baby was born.
Like my daughter, he was born via C-section, and swallowed amniotic fluid, and we didn't meet until the second day.
When they brought him, he started sucking milk and didn’t need any nipple shields at all. I was so lucky!
But when he was full, I saw a bleeding crack on my nipple. I applied some creams and continued breastfeeding with nipple shields, and in a few days, my breast was healthy again.
I don’t need these nipple shields anymore and therefore I’m going to throw them away soon.
In my case, it was the only possibility to breastfeed. Highly recommended!
