Can anyone recommend a lactation consultant?

[jeaniebee]

Hi,

I've got a two week week old baby and I'm having a rough time with breast feeding. I've already been seen by a specialist community breast feeding advisor from Kings Hosp but she is now at a loss as to what to do next. Baby's latch is great she says but the nipple is still getting squashed into the 'lipstick' shape. I'm going to be seen by a bf midwife who specialises in identifying tongue-tie later this week, but I've now decided to hire a private lactation consultant/breast feeding counsellor and would really like to get some good recommendations first. Can anyone recommend somebody who really helped when all others failed?

PS - I've tried all the usual suggestions for troubleshooting and soothing painful breasts/nipples so would really just like a recommendation for a good bf counsellor now.

Many thanks.

[bluesuperted]

Hi Jeanie,

Sorry to hear you're having a difficult start. There was a similar post a few weeks ago which had loads of recommendations for LCs and also links to other useful threads:

http://www.eastdulwichforum.co.uk/forum/read.php?29,750999,752105#msg-752105

The specialist you're probably seeing is Claire Kedves who is mentioned a lot in the thread above.

Really hope you find a great LC soon and your feeding becomes painfree as soon as possible.

Take care and good luck, it's an overwhelming time and problems BF can be really hard to deal with but good support is out there :)

X

[jeaniebee]

Thanks, I'll check out the earlier post. It's not Claire Kedves I've been seeing so not sure if they'll let me see another member of the team, I'll look into it.

Cheers.

[Saffron]

We had a similar problem, I think. The lactation consultant identified that the problem was not tongue-tie, but rather it was that Little Saff had a high palate and short tongue. This is a variation on normal, which unfortunately can cause some problems for breastfeeding. If that is the case for you, the good news is that newborns do out grow this as the head/mouth grow very quickly. Jill Dye (07816 136 477) was the private lactation consultant we saw, as recommended through the Forum. She has many years of experience helping mothers and babies with a variety of bfing issues. Hope things get better for you soon. xx

[bluesuperted]

Definitely try and see Claire, have lots of friends who she helped massively with tongue tie. Definitely worth kicking up a stink to see her as well if at all possible.

Hope you get sorted really soon.

[Pickle]

Sorry to hear you're having problems. I agree that you should push to see Claire Kedves at Kings, she really is the one that knows the most about breastfeeding related problems.

We used Jill Dye (it's me that recommended her to Saffron I think!) for our problems (which were tongue tie related), she is a lovely lady who will not only give great advice, but also help build your confidence, which for me was crucial after weeks of battling to breastfeed. I wouldn't hesitate to use her again, she is excellent. Although she costs (not extortionate), the major benefit is that she will come and see you at home.

Good luck,

Pippa x

[jeaniebee]

Thank you all for your advice and supportive replies, I'll definitely follow up on Claire and Jill. Unfortunately I now think I've got thrush on one side too...arghhhh! But I'm sure we'll get there eventually.

[Fuschia]

Hang in there!

And I agree about claire

[swagstar]

Try Sofie Jacobs - http://www.sofiejacobs.com/ I went to her antenatal classes and then she came round to help me with feeding afterwards. She is lovely and extremely helpful.

[alieh]

I can highly recommend Katie Fisher. She has helped me with both of my boys' tongue ties, which were posterior and very hard to diagnose (missed by everyone else). 020 8662 0184 or 07949 176776.

[uptime]

Katie Fisher also helped me with thrush. She wrote me a letter to take to my GPs so they would prescribe me the hardcore regimen to get rid of it.

[jenc]

Another vote for Katie Fisher, she diagnosed thrush and posterior tongue tie with my son which no one else had picked up on. I had a truly miserable time until I saw her and she spotted both straightaway and got us into the tongue tie clinic quickly and wrote a letter to my gp to get these circular wound dressings which really helped with sore nipples.