Breastfeeding FAQs: Comfort Nursing, Thrush & More Answers to Your Top Breastfeeding Questions
- jaimiezaki
- 6 days ago
- 11 min read
Breastfeeding with Confidence Podcast: Your Breastfeeding Questions Answered!
What to Do When Your Baby “Uses You as a Pacifier” — and When to Worry About Thrush
Hey Mama Bear — have you ever felt like your baby just wants to nurse constantly? Maybe your nipples are sore, you’re touched out, and you’re wondering if you’ve somehow become a human pacifier. You’re not alone. Many mothers experience this and wonder what to do. The truth is, what feels like your baby “using you as a pacifier” is often completely normal — and healthy. Today we’ll answer your breastfeeding questions!
Breastfeeding Question: Is Comfort Nursing Normal
How to Cope When You’re Touched Out
When the White Patches Aren’t Thrush
Breastfeeding Question: Is Comfort Nursing Normal
First, let’s reframe the language. Your baby doesn’t use you as a pacifier — pacifiers were designed to mimic you. Comfort nursing is part of your baby’s natural design. Babies suck not only for nutrition but for nervous-system regulation and connection. That non-nutritive sucking helps them feel safe and calm. It’s not a bad habit; it’s a biological need.
That said, it can still feel overwhelming. You may have other responsibilities, or your nipples might be sore. When that happens, it helps to know how to balance your needs and your baby’s.
How to Cope When You’re Touched Out
Here are some things to consider when you feel like comfort nursing is draining you…
Shallow latch during comfort nursing. Even babies with a good latch can slip into a shallow latch once they start dozing. This can make your nipples ache. Gently break suction, help your baby close their mouth, and encourage them to keep their tongue on the roof of their mouth.
Possible oral-function issues. If your baby seems to need constant sucking and mouth breathing, there may be tongue or airway issues at play. In that case, an evaluation by a skilled IBCLC can help.
Use pacifiers wisely. If your baby latches well and your supply is stable, an occasional pacifier is probably okay, but you want to make sure that it’s one that helps to promote better oral function. Most pacifiers actually promote tongue thrusting, and overemphasis on the wrong sucking muscles
Baby-wearing. Snuggling your baby close in a wrap or carrier can meet their comfort needs while freeing your hands and helping you reset emotionally.
Remember — you’re not “unproductive” when you spend time nursing. You’re doing the most important work there is.
Breastfeeding Questions: Are white spots in baby’s mouth thrush?
Another common question I get is about white patches on a baby’s tongue. Many moms are told it’s thrush, especially if nipples are sore — but in reality, it’s often something called milk tongue.
Milk tongue appears when a baby can’t effectively clean their tongue by pressing it to the roof of their mouth, often due to a latch or tongue-function issue. True thrush, on the other hand, usually shows up as white speckles that can’t be wiped away inside the lips or cheeks and a shiny, red rash on the nipples that smells yeasty.
If it’s genuine thrush, both you and your baby need treatment — and gentle, evidence-based remedies are safer than harsh or outdated options like gentian violet (seriously, don’t use gentian violet). Often, addressing gut health and reducing sugar can make a big difference in preventing thrush. Homeopathy, herbal remedies, and supplements that disrupt biofilm can all be beneficial when dealing with true yeast infections. While sometimes, difficult cases could require pharmaceutical intervention, be sure to consider the impact to the micro biome, and carefully protect it with prebiotics, probiotics, and nutritious gut-friendly diet for mom.
You’re Not Alone
Whether you’re navigating nonstop nursing or battling “thrush” that won’t quit, you don’t have to figure it out alone. Early support matters.
If you need personalized help, I offer 20-minute Q&A sessions to get your questions answered and create a clear plan for your breastfeeding journey.
👉 Visit littlebearlactation.com/support to book your session today.
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Transcript:
Sometimes we have things to do, you know, we are getting exhausted. Maybe we feel touched out. Maybe our nipples are getting really sore, so here's what my recommendations are.
If you feel like your baby is using you as a pacifier,
Hey Mama Bear. Welcome to the Breastfeeding With Confidence podcast. Do you dream of bonding with your baby through exclusive breastfeeding, but worry about breastfeeding pain or low milk supply? Maybe you're struggling with breastfeeding and no one seems to have any answers. I'm Jamie Doula, international Board certified lactation consultant, and Mom of five, and I have been where you are after working through painful latches, milk supply worries, and postpartum depression, and.
Supporting countless mothers through their breastfeeding journeys for over eight years. I'm here to tell you breastfeeding doesn't have to be perfect to be positive. Each week I'll share breastfeeding tips to help you prevent and overcome unexpected breastfeeding challenges so you can actually enjoy bonding with your baby.
If you are ready to shut out the toxic whispers of the world, embrace your God-given intuition and release your inner fierce Mama bear. Grab some coffee or your favorite herbal tea and let's dive in.
Welcome to November. It is my favorite month of the year because it is my birthday month, but that's not until much later in the month. So I just like to claim the whole month as mine. And of course, everything gets chaotic because it's getting colder and we're ready for Thanksgiving and holidays and you know, all of the fun things.
But it's. It's busy and busy. Busy times of the year can make breastfeeding extra challenging. So today I'm going to answer a few common questions that moms ask that might help you find a little bit of peace as you navigate this chaotic time of the year. All right, so today we have two questions coming in, and one of them is what to do when your baby is using you as a pacifier, and the other is about if your baby's thrush isn't going away even after treatment.
Let's dig into it. So first, let's talk about the question that was submitted. My baby is using me as a pacifier. What should I do? All right, well first of all, whenever I hear this, I. Feel a little like, it's really important to start reframing because your baby does not use you as a pacifier. In fact, they use a pacifier as you remember that comfort nursing is.
Normal. It is not a problem. There is nothing wrong with baby wanting to nurse without that, wanting that non-nutritive sucking with you instead of the pacifier. That's what they were designed for. We were not designed to have pacifiers. All right? Pacifiers became a convenience as we became more busy and are not able to just lay around and nurse all day long.
So. First of all, we wanna tell the difference between nutritive sucking and non-nutritive sucking. And that non-nutritive sucking is comfort sucking. And that's okay. That's good for your baby's nervous system. So your baby is doing this because they're looking for comfort, nervous system regulation. They might be getting ready to go through growth spurt.
They could be teething. There's so many reasons that babies want to comfort nurse and quote, use you as a pacifier and none of them. It means anything is wrong, but it can be a little overwhelming. Sometimes we have things to do, you know, we are getting exhausted. Maybe we feel touched out. Maybe our nipples are getting really sore, so here's what my recommendations are.
If you feel like your baby is using you as a pacifier, first of all, the mindset shift is huge. The mindset shift is huge, but if you really are kind of hitting that limit where you're like, I've got things to do, first thing you can, or my nipples hurt, is first thing is sometimes even if your baby has a good latch and they start doing that comfort sucking, your nipples can hurt.
'cause they kind of start to fall asleep and like fall off of the latch because they're. Not really into it, but you, you take the breast out of their mouth and they're like, aha. Now. But then when they have it in their mouth, they're not really into it and so they don't really latch well and that can hurt.
Um, so that's a time where if that's kinda like the consistent thing, I would help your baby unlatch. See if you can, very simply help them close their mouth. Make sure they're, they've got their tongue to the roof of their mouth. . And they're not laying there with an open mouth.
'cause sometimes that is if they we're getting so into like other airway issues. But if they're mouth breathing and they're wanting to comfort suck constantly, a lot of times that's more of a oral function issue then it is a needing to suckle all the time issue. . And so they're trying to fill that oral cavity because they're not doing it with their tongue, so they try to use your breast to do it.
. Otherwise you, you can use a pacifier if you know your baby has been latching really well, like you can use a pacifier wisely, right? , Baby wearing can be really great for this because you can kind of multitask and eventually they'll unlatch, but because they're still so close to you, they will be settled and calm and not necessarily want to suckle the whole time.
So. I love baby wearing as a tool when it feels like the baby just constantly wants me and wants to nurse and I don't feel like I can do that. Using baby wearing and a pacifier in conjunction can be a good tool. . It's, it's important to kind of figure out, you know, what the balance is and find that balance for you.
You're not wrong because you don't want to be laying down nursing 24 7, but also don't feel like you can't, don't feel like you are not being productive enough because your baby wants to nurse a lot. That does not mean you are not being productive. You are doing the most important work, even if it looks like you are not being productive with everything else.
All right. Moving on to the next question. My baby has white patches on her tongue, and the doctor said it was threshed, but it's not going away. All right, this one is a loaded topic. Alright, thrush is another term for a yeast infection, like an oral yeast infection, and it is. Commonly overdiagnosed and commonly misdiagnosed.
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So frequently babies will present with a white coating on their tongue, , and doctors will. Say, oh, it's thrush. You know, mom's nipples hurt and there's white coating on the tongue, so it must be thrush. And a lot of times those white patches are not actually thrush. It's something we call milk tongue.
And milk tongue is basically what happens when your baby's drinking milk, but cannot properly clean and clear their tongue by creating friction against the roof of their mouth and swallowing. What's the best way to describe it for me? That's the best way I can describe it. So if they can't clean their tongue properly, the milk kind of sits there and it's not necessarily a yeast infection, it's just not clearing.
Alright. And so what happens is this typically happens when we have oral dysfunction, so that will correlate with nipples that hurt and that are red and angry, and. This is often called thrush because the doctor or the nurse is like, oh, well the baby has a great latch and you've got this white tongue and sore nipples.
It must be thrush that there's no way it's anything else. But what they're failing to realize is that you can't tell if it's a good latch based on how it. Looks, you can only tell if it's a good last latch based on how it feels and functions. And so if you are in pain and we're seeing the baby's not able to clear the milk off their tongue, it's, it's not a yeast infection.
So it gets treated as a yeast infection and the underlying cause is ignored and not, , addressed. That being said, the rest does happen. I think there are some lactation consultants out there that are so. Laser focused on thrush being overdiagnosed, that they kind of pretend like it doesn't happen. And I have, I have, my third baby had thrush when she was 10 months old.
And yes, it did pass to me. Some people will say it can't pass between mom and baby. Others will insist it does. , In my experience, it absolutely did. And she, I could tell it was thrush. And the, the reason it was different was one, we had worked through all our latching issues, two. She had, she did not have just a white coating on her tongue.
She had little white speckles on the inside of her lips, the roof of her mouth, and my, my symptoms were extremely. Just very classic thrush or very classic yeast infection with a red rash that was shiny and moist and it smelled like beer or bread. Like you could, you could tell it was, it was thrush.
Absolutely. It was yeast. , And so it is really important in those situations that we're treating both mom and baby.
So if it's not going away, you do need to make sure that you are getting proper treatment for that. , There are diff a lot of different things on the market you might hear people say about genian. Violet being a great, . Treatment for Rush. It's natural. I had heard that and learned that a long time ago, and I know that is still circulating and I definitely don't recommend using Gentian Violet.
I personally used it and had a very bad experience with it. I had another family member personally use it and have a very bad experience. , And evidence has come out that it's not necessarily effective and does carry some risk. So I, I do recommend trying to avoid gentian violet if that is something somebody recommends to you.
At the end of the day, thrush tends to be more of a gut health and sugar intake issue over anything else. So if you are battling thrush, that is going to be one of the best places to start is addressing sugar intake. Reducing it significantly. , Increasing probiotic use and really making sure that you are getting that microbiome under control because that will get the thrush under control.
So if you are one of these moms who is worried about thrush in your baby, or you are worried about comfort nursing or being used as a pacifier, I want you to know that these are common questions. You are not alone, and they are also not as. End of the world as they might seem in the moment. And if you need help with it, I am here to help you.
I offer 20 minute q and a sessions where we can get some of your questions answered if they're basic questions. And if we find out that you need a little extra support, we can create a clear path forward to make sure you're getting the answers and support that you and your baby deserve so that you can go on to achieve your breastfeeding goals.
Visit little bear lactation.com/support to book your visit today.
Alright, mama bear. That is a wrap for today. If this episode helps you feel a little more confident or a little more prepared for breastfeeding, can I ask you a quick favor? Go ahead and leave me a review. It helps other moms find this podcast and join us in this amazing community of fierce and confident Mama bears.
And hey, if you know a friend who could use some encouragement or real talk about pregnancy, breastfeeding, and all things motherhood, share this episode with her. You've got this Mama Bear Trust your instincts, stay fierce, and I'll catch you in the next episode.
Jaimie Zaki is an International Board Certified Lactation Consultant (IBCLC) and mom of 5! Jaimie has volunteered as a La Leche League Leader, worked as a nurse, doula, and birth photographer, and is the host of the Breastfeeding With Confidence Podcast and founder of the Confident MamaBear Society. Jaimie provides holistic breastfeeding advice for pregnant & new moms, helping them overcome unexpected latching trouble and milk supply issues. She empowers mothers to make informed decisions from a place of confidence and intuition.
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