FTM in tears cuz nipples hurt
I gave birth 6 days ago. I was able to breast feed properly the first two days but then came the latch issue. My baby only takes the nipple in his mouth and bites it hard. I’m in tears when I BF. I also gave formula milk thrice because I couldn’t handle the pain. Then I started pumping with Spectra S1 and while it’s going great, my nipples after each pump are swollen and hurt. I don’t want to rely solely on a bottle so I really want to breastfeed more but I just can’t because of the pain. I think he’s not able to extract more from me & ends up crying & after 15mins of excruciating nipple pain, I resort to bottle feed (that I pump for late nights but guess that’s not happening anymore).
I’ve seen countless videos on how to do it. The nose to chin technique, pulling the lip down method, football baseball basketball cricket I don’t know what else is out there.
I’m here to ask, will it get better or should I just give up and switch to formula (which gives me massive guilt already). Please help! Any advice is welcome.
PS. We don’t have lactation consultants in our area. Just some nurses who give basic schooling on how to make the baby latch. It didn’t help..
UPDATE: I didn’t give up. My LO learned how to properly latch 🫶🏻😭 thank youuu all the lovely ladies who helped me out here. The support I received under this post made me keep going.