Preparing your nipples for BFing

Shanseur*

is a total joke!  Some suggest rubbing them with a damp cloth or or other stupid ideas to toughen them up....but its not worth it.  When I had DD....I was so concerned because my nipples were bleeding and scabbed over....when I asked the nurses and LCs about it they would look and say "oh that's normal."  REALLY?!  Plus it hurts SO BAD the first week and a half.  After that its fine though.  The thing is....I would not have "prepared my nippes" enough to the point to make them bleed and scab over before this whole BFing adventure.  Only when I knew my child had to be fed did I just suck it up and do it.

A post below about the challenges of BFing reminded me of this.  Don't waste your time ladies!

hula_lula

Not to mention it makes no sense!

Do you go break your leg so that it hurts less next time you break it?! No!

Ladies, be kind to your ladies.

ck715

totally agree. I didn't "prepare" before BF our DS and I was fine. I hadn't heard of that old wives tale thing until my Aunt mentioned it to me about 2 wks before I delivered and I was like "that sounds weird, I'm not going to bother with that".?

IselaCid

What you describe really is NOT normal, I'm shocked they said it was.  It's usually a sign of a bad latch or tongue tie.  The Breastfeeding Book by William Sears is a good resource and anythign I've ever read has always said that preparing your nipples is not necessary. 

ChelleM

My mother told me to do this - she didn't and she thinks this is why BFing didn't work out for her.  From what she described, I think she didn't have the baby latched correctly.  And I say "baby" because I feel weird saying "she didn't have ME latched correctly".  lol

Shanseur*

Nope....she was latched just like she was supposed to be.  TRUST ME.... I checked many many times. (Made sure she wasn't just on the nipple but mouth around the whole areola...etc.)  Her latch was exactly the same for the whole 6 months I did it.  It was just that first week... geez!  But yeah...it must be common enough for several professionals to say it was okay.

MissRedEorNot

Someone on here also said that they heard about prepping by rubbing your nipples with a loofah.  That sounds incredibly painful! 

Mrs_mam

Yeah, my mom told me to "rough them up". Hello, you had 2 kids, did YOU do that? NO? Well then I'm not going to!

Mama Jan

So, so true.  Don't even bother with it.

And it's not that bad for everyone!  I had about 2 weeks where I used lanolin on my nips but they never cracked, never bled, and were barely sore.