How can my breastfeeding wife overcome these problems with nursing?

There are a few possibilities at this point, and a most of them have been addressed by the people who have answered this question.

I personally have had no luck with WIC and their advice on lactation. Nurses at WIC were trying to tell me how I needed to feed my daughter along the same type of feeding schedule as a baby on formula, which is ridiculously bad advice. The people I talked to at WIC were also trying to tell me that feeding my baby "on demand" was wrong and that I would over-feed her and make her sick. Clearly, they had no idea what they were talking about and I don't even understand where they got that mess to begin with. U.S. Government health websites are suggesting the very things I was doing, so.. go figure. I recommend that you find assistance through the La Leche League.

When you say "it was a little rough" starting out.. listen, you're still starting out. The first two to three weeks of breastfeeding are almost assuredly going to be awkward. Mom and baby are still learning how to do it, and frankly, her breasts are doing work that they've never done before. I suspect there are latching/positioning problems going on here, and maybe thrush. It doesn't take very long to set in and it does NOT mean an end to breastfeeding. If the baby was latching okay before and isn't now, it's possible that she's experiencing engorgement and her areola is becoming difficult for the baby to latch onto. FYI, it's the whole areola that the baby needs to start getting in his mouth, and trust me.. it seems like that little mouth would be way too small to do that, but they can. If he's on the nipple but not taking in a lot of the areola, he's not latched on right.

There is also the distinct possibility that she is experiencing thrush, which can be very painful indeed. It's also very treatable and the baby can nurse despite thrush.

Don't give up on breastfeeding over it. I know it's hard but it takes a little while for everyone to get past a bit of a learning curve. I had some minor mastitis problems early on that I didn't get checked out, and they ended up hurting pretty badly. I think at the time I was hell-bent on sticking it out because so many people had been negative, acting like breastfeeding was ridiculously hard and pointless. I could still nurse safely (it IS safe for the baby to nurse, carefully, through mastitis) and thankfully the infection cleared itself up. I would have been in a lot less pain if I'd gotten on some antibiotics and hadn't freaked out about whether I should take the ibuprofen that my doctor had already said would be okay to take. Even with all of that, my discomfort went away within three weeks after she was born and today she's 13 months old and the healthiest (still nursing + solids) thing you've ever seen. She's never been to the pediatrician for anything but routine shots.

It's very important that you get her to a doctor soon about the discomfort. It's easy with the internet to sit at home and self-diagnose with all the information out there, and no one can blame you when you're trying to care for a baby and you're nervous. Everyone has done it. It's okay, so long as you get a physician to talk to you about your concerns.

Well firstly, it is not 100% impossible for babies to get teeth at 5 days old. There are records of babies BORN with teeth.

And secondly, from the sounds of it, he isn't latching to her breast correctly. That is the hardest thing to overcome, and I had problems too.

BUT DO NOT GET DISCOURAGED, what you are doing is wonderful for your baby.

I went to Milkworks, a store for breastfeeding mothers and babies. The lactation consultants really help. If you can not find a milkworks near you, the hospital may have lactation consultants to help you. In fact, google "lactation consultants" in your area if you can not find a milkworks. Good luck!

Read through

http://www.breastfeedinginc.ca/content.php?pagenam...

"My wife is going to attempt to talk to the WIC lactation consultant tommorow, if they can get her in, but she has been only marginally helpful in the past. The nurses at the hospital were helpful when we were there, but somewhat less helpful when we called them"

Neither of those people are going to be adequately trained to help; you need to find somebody who is. You want an "IBCLC"-certified consultant -- http://americas.iblce.org/find-an-ibclc -- or a La Leche League leader -- http://llli.org/

It sounds like your son is not latching well at all. " Fortunatly, he wasn't very hungry and after a few sucks drifted off to sleep" is not really what you want at this stage. One diaper...five days old? Are you sure? With modern diapers it can be hard to tell when one is wet -- dump a tsp of water on one, see if you know what you're looking for. But lack of diapers in a newborn is an emergency; get on the phone.

She can try expressing and cup or spoon-feeding... http://www.kellymom.com/bf/pumping/alternative-fee... Pumping and bottle-feeding is a very bad idea.

"Our son may already be developing two top teeth. They aren't through the gum yet, but they seem to be close. And I suspect it is their presence that is making breastfeeding become painful quickly. The first day it was pain free - day five my poor wife had two tiny blisters on the top of one nipple"

No, a nursing baby isn't going to be able to even use teeth; properly latched they just...do not.

"my wifes nipples would erect nicely to fit in his mouth. As of tonight they don't seem to want to erect at all"

This isn't supposed to happen; one doesn't nurse with erect nipples. She will get a better latch without an "erect" nipple. Best to hold the breast a bit like a sandwich, flattening things a bit, offering it to the baby as if you expect him to take a huge bite out of the sandwich.

Giving a baby an erect nipple to suck on = recipe for disaster. The teething thing is unlikely and even if you do have the rare newborn about to sprout teeth this would not cause blistering, at all, with a proper latch.

Breastfeeding does not involve sucking on the nipple -- it involves suckling while gently clamped down on the areola. Look at http://www.breastfeedinginc.ca/content.php?pagenam... -- read through the Kellymom site -- get qualified help, get on the phone now.

...the advice below is pretty bad; nipple shields cause all sorts of problems, so does uninformed use of a pump, Motherisk advises about drug/nursing interactions, not general nursing how-to -- ignore the whole thing, really

It is 100% impossible that your 5 day old son is teething babies do not teeth until they are at least between 4 and 7 months to me it just sounds like your wife is not latching him on properly which mean he is sucking her nipple onto the hard palate instead of the soft (if you run your tongue along the roof of your mouth until you reach the soft bit this is where her nipple should be) id recommend going to a breastfeeding clinic where they can help you latch as your nipple does not always have to be erect to feed, as for only having one wet diaper a day he clearly is not getting enough food for him to create enough stools or wetness in his diaper.

best of luck. x

p.s it is completely natural for a baby to fall asleep on the boob