Painful feedings, yet baby has good latch
ChelseyMiller
member
My baby is 5 days old. We started breastfeeding nearly right after birth and I have been persistant with it despite the fact that it feels like razor blades cutting my nipples every-time baby sucks. The pain got so bad I pumped and bottle fed him a couple of times but it made me feel sad because I want to breastfeed so badly.
I have had two nurses, my midwife, and a lactation consultant (who came to my house) all tell me the baby's latch is great and ruled out tongue-tie, thrush etc.
My nipples are cracked, bloody and extremely sensitive. The LC said that they should not look like that. I have been using the lanolin, soothies, dry shields, everything to help relieve the pain inbetween feedings, but that's not really what's bothering me, it's the terrible pain during the feeding that is almost unbareable.
Anyone know or have had a similar issue? I'm so confused as to why this is happening and not even the LC can explain it. Will the pain eventually subside if I keep feeding, or just get worse as my nipples break down more and more? Any advice or help is greatly appreciated!
Re: Painful feedings, yet baby has good latch
It does get better. The people who say it doesn't hurt if you do it right are either very lucky or liars.
Using the hydrogel pads does help the cracks and bleeding, but you have to keep them on 24-hours a day. It will take about a week to completely heal.
You also might be allergic to the lanolin--I am, and it does a great job of removing my skin. You might be better off using Vaseline. The LCs I have encountered have said "lanolin only" and seem to think it is impossible to have an issue with the lanolin. There are other options that are safe for the baby.
IMO the first thing you have to do is heal your nipples, then figure out what caused the damage. It sounds like you have pretty severe damage - I did too, in my case because the hospital gave me a too-small nipple shield. I only used it for a couple of days but once the damage started, it spiralled totally out of control. I was ready to throat punch the next person who told me to use lanolin.
What set me back on the path to BFing was quad cream. You have to have your OB call in a prescription (just call and ask for it), but it's well worth the trouble and expense (mine was about $45). I was significantly better after a week and almost totally healed after two. I can't emphasize enough - get the quad cream!
Once your nipples have healed you may be able to pinpoint the problem, or even find that whatever was wrong has fixed itself - if your nipples are severely damaged, even a good latch will make them worse and worse and worse without treatment. TRUST ME, I waited over 4 weeks!!
Another tip is don't be afraid to take breaks from nursing by pumping & bottle feeding until you are better. My LC told me this was fine and it totally saved my sanity. I would do 12 hr stretches of it whenever I was in too much pain to nurse.
I have to disagree with the pp - Vaseline is petroleum. Not something I want on my nipples or in my baby's mouth.
I think I *might* have flat nipples, but the LC says my anatomy is fine... ? So I've been using a nipple shield which does sort of take the edge off the pain (sometimes), but I think because my nipples are so damaged and sore already I can't get total relief.
Ibis Re: quad cream... were you able to continue feeding from the breast while using the cream and still heal, or did you have to pump exclusively during that 1-2 week period of time? I really enjoy the bonding I'm getting with my son while he is at the breast, which is why the thought of bottle feeding for a week or two is hard, but I'll do what I have to do to get through this.
Ditto. When DS1 was born, my LC said that his latch was so good it should've been used for an instructional video, my nips were so sore. I think it's just initial abuse that they're not used to. I used the Avent Nipple Protectors from BRU (just hold it on while baby latches and they nurse through it) and they healed at around 24 hours. I used it every feeding for 1 day so that they could heal, after they healed I never had pain when nursing him again (until he bit me). I think they just needed to heal initially. GL.
You can nurse while using it. You use so little - put it on after nursing - that it is gone by the next time you nurse (really in only a few min). If you can still see it on your nipple the next time you nurse, you used a little too much. The relief came so quickly for me that I was back to nursing full time in a couple of days, no more pumping.
Be careful with that nipple shield. That's what caused my problem, because it was too small. Make sure it's "standard" or 24mm at least. I was given a size small, which is only 20mm... my LC said she has seen too many shredded nipples from those, because almost no one needs them that small!!
I had some pain in the beginning from cracking and bleeding. I found that the Medela lanolin was much easier to put on than the Lansinoh that the hospital provided. The Lansinoh was so thick and sticky it hurt to put on, whereas the Medela was much thinner and easier to rub in.
My mother scared the crap out of me by telling me that her entire nipple broke off when she was breastfeeding me! It broke in four pieces and FELL OFF! Anyway, it eventually healed--she said the little buds of tissue around the nipple built back up into a normal looking and functioning nipple--and she continued breastfeeding me (and then 3 more babies later) on both sides. I also have a cousin who had a lot of pain issues and had to pump for six weeks, but then was able to BF just fine.
I just wanted to share this to show that you can get through pretty tough adversity if it means a lot to you. What women are willing to go through and what our bodies are capable of boggles the mind...even my husband who is an OB/GYN was amazed with my mom's nipple falling off and regenerating story!
This! I tried lanolin, soothies, and letting breastmilk dry on the nipple after feedings... nothing helped. The LC had my midwife prescribe the cream and after 2 weeks my nipples were completely healed.
This! I had severely cracked and bleeding nipples too, and kept putting lanolin cream on them. I had an LC come to my house to evaluate our latch because BF'ing was so painful and she told me to stop using the lanolin immediately. If you have open sores lanolin can cause yeast infections, i.e. thrush. Not something you ever want to get. My LC said lanolin is great until you have open sores, once you're cracked and bleeding do not touch it.
She told me to have my OB prescribe APNO cream, which is all purpose nipple ointment. Not sure if that is the same as the quad cream ibis recommends. I do know it was around the same price ($45), it has an anti-fungal agent in it, and I had to go to a special pharmacy for it. Please call your doctor and ask for help. You do not want those sores to get infected.
I will probably get flamed for this, but I would not suggest pumping right now. If you need to do it for your sanity, of course do it, but I would keep trying the BF'ing. Pumping is so much work and I'm sure you are barely surviving as it is with a 5-day old and all these issues. It WILL get better I promise.
Not to scare you, but I had open sores on both nipples for over a month and nursed through it. They had to heal from the bottom up, so it took a while. Once I got over the initial shock and horror of it (and started using the APNO cream) it didn't hurt that bad. I just used different positions so my DS wasn't latching directly onto the sore.