hi everyone welcome back I see a lot of
nipple shields on baby registries and I
often get asked pretty early on in the
hospital if someone's experiencing sore
nipples if I think this would help them,
so today we're gonna answer all your
questions about nipple shields and
discuss the pros and cons of use of this
little seemingly harmless device. My name is Kassi Reyes, I'm one of the cofounders
of People's Lactation, I am a registered
nurse, an international board certified
lactation consultant.. say that three
times fast!
My goal is to make the most
evidence-based and up-to-date
information on infant feeding available
to you, so stay tuned subscribe, give us a
like and make sure you hit the bell so
that you're notified each week when I
post a new video. I'll be posting a new
video every Tuesday evening. As
promised I am going to teach you how to
place a nipple shield in case that you
do end up needing to use, it in case that
it is recommended by your postpartum
nurse or your lactation consultant.
Placement is super important. If you're
just given one of these, which hopefully
you'll get proper teaching in the
hospital ... but just in case let me show
you how to put one of these things on.
Alright, so in the case that we have a
shorter nipple or an inverted nipple the
idea is for the nipple to be pulled up
into this little cone area, we achieve
that by, first of all let me put down my
breast. haha  That sounds funny "let me put down
my breast".. hmmm. alright so we're gonna put our thumbs on the base of the nipple and
we're gonna flip it halfway inside out
so it leaves a little dimple in the end.
like that, and we're gonna place the
nipple into this dimple and then we're
going to stretch the base of the shield
over the breast and it should pop the
nipple right up into it. This extends the
nipple a little bit to help an infant
who's having trouble latching to latch onto
the breast. We are going to talk about
some of the pros and cons of using this
device. The shield has little holes in
the end where colostrum or milk will be
transferred to the baby. Some shields have
this little cutout area here, which
promotes a little bit more skin-to-skin
with latching and baby snows should be
right up against the parents skin
instead of being pressed up against
plastic or silicone. So if you're in the
market for a nipple shield, look for this cut
out, and I would recommend getting one
that is made out of silicone. As far as
sizing goes your nurse or lactation
consultant should help you initially to
find the correct size but what we are
looking for is for the shield to pull
the nipple up into this cone area, we're
looking for conical part of the shield
to fit inside of your baby's mouth. When
a baby is properly latched to a nipple
shield their jaws should be low and at the edge of the areola and their
mouth should be up and over all of the
conical part of the shield, and the tip
should be reaching for the back of the
baby's mouth. So we do not want to see
this aimed at baby's mouth and baby just
chomping on the end of this
You want to aim the nipple up to the
nose so baby has to have the chin land
at the edge of the areola, open their
mouth wide, and come up and over. Up and
over
I try to avoid this little device at all
costs... maybe not at all costs, that sounds
a little dramatic but I try to avoid it
as much as possible because there are
some downsides to using a nipple shield
especially when it's not needed. Some
reasons for using a nipple shield would
be if baby is having a lot of trouble
latching. Sometimes there's something
with the babies oral Anatomy or
sometimes babies having a really
difficult time, if the parents nipple is
a little bit short or inverted,  feeling
the nipple tickle the roof of the mouth,
which is where the infant's suck reflex is.
When I've tried all the other tricks in
the book I may introduce the nipple
shield. I really try to avoid this in the
early days though, and I avoid it because
there are downsides to using this. This
acts as a barrier between mom and baby.
In other videos I've discussed the
importance of breast stimulation and
milk supply.
If a nipple shield is used long term it
can affect milk supply because each time
baby goes to breast there's just a
little less stimulation. Normally if I
introduce this we're also going to be
discussing a little bit of pumping.
Another downside to introducing this
early on is that it is really tricky
sometimes to get a baby who's gotten
used to using this to wean off of it.
Most people don't enjoy using one of
these. It's a pain in the butt!
You put it on, it falls off. You try to
position the baby, they kick it off. It's
not fun to use, and the goal when we
introduce one of these is to use it
hopefully for two weeks, maybe three
weeks or less the ideal situation would
be to have a plan for getting the baby
off of needing the shield and have the
parent work with a lactation consultant
to be able to help them with that
process of weaning.
Another disadvantage to using a shield
is that it can cause a little less milk
transfer. Babies don't tend to get an
ideal latch with a shield and may
transfer less milk, in turn putting the
parent at risk for more plugged ducts and
possibly mastitis.  To answer the age-old
question on whether or not this can be a
useful tool for sore nipples, I tend to
lean towards "no." It can be really
difficult for a baby to get an ideal
latch, they tend to get pretty shallow
and kind of chomp on the end of the
shield and if baby already doesn't have
an ideal latch and we introduce a nipple
shield, it can just continue to feel like
a painful,
chompy, pinchy latch over a silicone
shield. If you have any requests for
videos, make sure to leave a comment down
below and I'd be happy to address any of
your questions or concerns I do have a
request for a video on the use of a
silicone breast pump or a haakaa pump so I have placed an order for one of those
pumps so I have one to show you in
person with tips and tricks on the use
of that. See you next week!  If you found
the information in this video helpful
make sure to subscribe down below, give
us a like, and check out some of our
other videos, and share this video with
families that you know who could use a
little bit of extra help with getting
their breastfeeding off to a good start
