Comment se préparer à allaiter ?
21 novembre 2024
Vous avez souhait d’allaiter ? On vous explique comment vous préparer à cette belle aventure !
5 minutes reading
Sometimes the breastfeeding experience doesn't go as smoothly as planned. Silicone nipples, also known as nipple shields, can be very useful in overcoming certain obstacles. However, they are often criticized for being misused too early or too systematically, which can have harmful consequences for breastfeeding, or simply have the opposite effect to that intended.
Our aim with this article is to give you the lowdown on this little accessory and help you to see more clearly so that you know when and how to use them.
Breast tips have been around for a very long time. In the past, women used them either before giving birth to prepare their nipples or between feeds to relieve sore nipples by adding cream inside.
Tin or silver breast tips followed, before being replaced in the 20th century by rubber solutions. Silicone breast tips were introduced in the 1980s.
The Histoire du biberon website, for example, has found this type of product, which was offered at the beginning of the 20th century. Metal breast tips, accompanied by a balm with an advertising message "DELACOUR cosmetic against chapped and cracked breasts, must always be sold with a brush to apply it and two tin breast tips to cover the nipples after application."
These days, breast forms are transparent, made of very thin medical silicone, and are readily available in pharmacies and parapharmacies at a cost of around 15 euros.
So, their use is not recent, and for my part, I find it rather reassuring. This means that in all eras, women have sought solutions to facilitate the breastfeeding experience. This is not a whim of women of our generation, nor a new marketing trap based on a false need. Based on a real need, but is it the right solution?
Here are some situations in which breast pads can help with breastfeeding, or at least this is how the brands that sell breast pads recommend using them:
sometimes the baby frequently releases the breast and is not very efficient. These difficulties often arise after premature births. Babies are too small, tire quickly and are unable to latch on.
On the other hand, some mothers find that their baby sucks too hard, with intense suction on the nipple, making feeding painful. In such cases, the use of a breast tip can reduce the pressure exerted and make breastfeeding bearable.
Breast tips can also be a great help in overcoming painful phases of cracking by avoiding direct contact with the wound. However, it's important to note that if they're used by a baby with a tendency to pinch the breast, this can aggravate the pain and won't solve the problem.
They can also help when the mother's nipples are flat and the baby can't get them into her mouth, known as flat or umbilicated nipples.
All these cases should encourage you to seek advice, as the breast tip may help temporarily but will not miraculously solve the problem. What's more, for every situation, it's essential to seek advice from a trained person who can check whether the baby has a sucking problem, a bad position, etc. Seek advice from a breastfeeding professional, or get help from our lactation consultant . lactation consultant because for each of these situations, there are alternatives to breastfeeding. It's vital to understand the origin of your difficulties if you are to deal with them effectively.
It's essential to select particularly soft, correctly sized silicone nipples, to avoid compression of the breast and ensure that they fit your baby's mouth. We recommend brands offering a variety of nipple sizes, so you can choose the one that suits you best. The nipple should be housed in the long part, but without rubbing against the sides. The cone should not be too long, to avoid triggering the baby's gag reflex, and the base of the nipple should ideally not take up the whole areola, so that the baby's mouth can be in direct contact with the mother's skin.
Once you've chosen a model, here's how to use breast tips
After sterilizing the breast tip, position it on the nipple, then unfold the edge over the areola and breast. To facilitate adhesion, you can slightly moisten the edges. Then place the baby at the breast in the same way as if you weren't using a breast tip. This tuto shows you how to do it...
The most difficult thing is to keep the breast tip firmly attached to the breast during feeding... it often falls off or comes loose. If this happens, don't panic, just moisten it again - you can use your saliva to do this - and reposition it.
After each use, clean the breast tip with hot soapy water and rinse.
The use of breast shields entails major risks for breastfeeding, of which you need to be aware. Being aware of these risks allows mothers to use them only temporarily, and only with the help of a professional. Once warned, the risks are under control, and there's really no reason to demonize them.
Sucking problem The breast tip prevents the baby from sucking physiologically. The mouth hold is different and less effective than when the baby has the nipple directly in his mouth, since there is a thickness between the two. The baby may unlearn to suck and, above all, gain less weight. You'll need to keep an eye on your baby's curve and make sure he's growing normally.
What's more, the baby gets used to the breast tip so quickly that it's almost impossible to latch on again without one, so you need to be patient! The other side of the coin is that removing the breast tips can be a new challenge.
Problems of engorgement or mastitis in the mother Although studies are not clear on this subject, breastfeeding professionals agree that the use of breast tips tends to increase the risk of engorgement and mastitis, because the breast is less well drained. So you need to make sure your breasts are drained regularly. If you have too much milk, we strongly recommend using a haakaa milk collectorwhich will help empty the breast without stimulating lactation.
More or less rapidlactation decline in the mother The main risk is that the mother will produce less milk, as the breast is less well drained and the baby's suckling is less effective. Eventually, this can lead to involuntary weaning. You need to be very vigilant.
Infection and hygiene problems If the breast tips are not cleaned after each feed, germs and bacteria can develop, causing breast fungus for example.
In short, once you know all this, it's true that it's better to avoid using them if you can manage without them, and in any case to look for other solutions at the same time! For every difficulty, there are different solutions to try out, which can help without jeopardizing breastfeeding.
The main use of breast tips is for nipple pain, particularly cracked nipples.
But they can also be useful in certain cases of REF - strong ejection reflex - about which we wrote an article here. When a mother has a Ref, her milk spurts out and flows too fast for the baby. Most of the time, the baby is able to adapt, but sometimes when it's too uncomfortable, he or she doesn't have time to swallow all that milk flow and may cough or have false routes. Although there are several solutions to try and implement to better manage this problem, it can happen that baby gets upset or even refuses the breast altogether. In such cases, the breast tip is useful for slowing down the flow of milk coming out of the breast, and will temporarily help the baby to adapt. The best advice is to use breast tips at the very beginning of a feed, until the heaviest flow has passed, then remove them for the rest of the feed.
Obviously, you need to be accompanied and advised by a professional, as the risks of using breast forms for a long time are the same as those explained earlier.
Do you have a ref? You don't know how to deal with your baby who cries and gets upset or refuses the breast? Make an appointment with our lactation consultant, who will help you find a suitable solution.
COFAM, or Coordination française pour l'allaitement maternel, is a non-profit organization dedicated to protecting and supporting breastfeeding. In their latest recommendation, COFAM states that "BDS can be an invaluable tool in specific situations, but must be used in a reasoned and determined manner over time. Quality follow-up is essential to avoid pitfalls".
La leche league, well known to breastfeeding moms, is an NGO founded in 1956 and now present in 70 countries. It is a reference for many mothers seeking information on breastfeeding, as it is very precise and cites numerous studies. As far as breast pads are concerned, la leche league believes that studies are not relevant to say whether breast pads are useful or useless, or whether they can endanger breastfeeding. So there's no reason to demonize them. Their position is more or less the same as that of COFAM, which states that "breast pads can help some mothers in certain situations, but like all other devices used by breastfeeding mothers, they are not a miracle cure".
"I'm not against the use of breast pads because they can save breastfeeding. However, their use should as far as possible be temporary, and it's vital to investigate the cause of the pain in order to find long-term solutions."
With the right information, breast tips can be an invaluable temporary support, especially for mothers who value breastfeeding but face unexpected challenges. As many mothers have said, without breast tips, they would have given up, and it helped them through a difficult period.
Thanks to Mariama Seugnet, IBCL consultant in Biarritz, for her proofreading and advice.
Source: cofam's post on silicone breast tips February 2024 and leche League's article on breast tips.
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