Vasospasm & cracked nipple - how to deal

Curls218

I have a cracked nipple (DS spit up blood this morning) plus I realized that what I thought was normal (white nipples after nursing) is actually vasospasm due (most likely) to DS's shallow latch.  We had latching troubles at the beginning but now I get him to latch and then he ends up backing off to a more shallow latch.  I had been letting him do this because it didn't hurt and he was getting milk so I didn't really think there was anything too bad about this....I apparently was wrong.

So now I'm not sure how to proceed.  I have been almost entirely EBF for a few weeks now and only pumping when I needed to leave a bottle.  I have one or two storage bags of milk in the freezer, nothing in the fridge.  I know the best thing for a cracked nipple is to give it time to heal.  So what do I do now?  Do I just feed from the other side and pump the side with the cracked nipple?  How can I get the vasospasm to go away?

 

I'll be seeing my LC on Thursday, but I know I need to deal with this before then.

TIA!

aylafsu88

I had vasospasms when LO was younger.  I never knew I had them until the LC at the weekly support group I went to noticed it and told me what it was and that it was not normal.  The things that she had me do to help made a huge difference.  I put hand warmers in my bras after nursing.  The heat helps the blood flow back to the nipple.  I avoided cold because that made them hurt like hell.  I also took a calcium and a magnesium supplement (@ 500 mg daily if I remember correctly). In my case LO had a shallow latch becasue I had flat/inverted nipples.  To help LO with her latch and not let her slide off the nipple I had to hold the breast while she nursed. Holding it helped keep it near/in her mouth so that she did not slide down the nipple.  When LO was about 15-16 weeks things became better and my vasospasms were gone by 20 ish weeks.  Her mouth was bigger and she had pulled the nipples out some so we no longer had to struggle as much with a shallow latch. 
As for the cracked nipple people here recommend APO to help it heal.  I have never had issues with a cracked nipple as mine were flat/inverted.  Hopefully someone will respond with more info on the cracked nipple.

hilsy85

Totally agree with the above--magnesium and calcium supplements, along with fixing LO's latch, helped the vasospasms go away in a week. 

APNO is amazing, it needs to be made at a compounding pharmacy so I would just make sure you have one near you. It helped my nips heal within a few days though--miracle product!