How do I heal split/torn nipple?

tater517

My little one will be 4 weeks old tomorrow.  I have been exclusively breastfeeding and it has been going really well so far.  He has a great latch and eats like a champ. 

From the beginning, I have had a deep crack on my right nipple.  It has gotten much worse and is now split open and exposing raw-looking skin.  It goes about 1/3 of the way around the nipple.  It really has not caused me any increased pain, but I am afraid of it tearing more, getting infected, or eventually interfering with breastfeeding.

Has anyone experienced this?  What is the best way to help it heal?  I have tried lanolin, gel pads, warm compress/shower, ice packs.  I am not pumping or giving bottles yet.  If a prescription ointment or cream is needed, is it best to talk to my Ob/Gyn, pediatrician, or primary care doctor?

Any recommendations?  Thanks in advance!

barnwife

I had the worst cracked nipple my midwife has ever seen (not something I was thrilled to hear).

I used lots of lanolin. I also exposed it to air and went without a bra if possible. Heck, due to J.'s weight gain issues at the time, we were doing tons of skin-to-skin so I was often without a bra or shirt.

Eventually, I demanded a nipple shield. Nothing was helping the crack. (They wanted me to avoid the shield due to J.'s weight gain issues.) I used it for just a short time  One day J. just refused to nurse with it anymore. And since the nipple was mostly healed, that was fine.

I would also suggest trying APNO before resorting to a shield.

GL!

coey03

soaking it in salt water, using shot glasses several times a day, should expedite the healing. GL!

lilylow

How much salt should you use?

TeAmoMiAmor

When this happened to me I took about 2 days off of pumped and bottle fed LO (every feeding except middle of the night because I didn't want to deal with the pump when I was so sleepy). I did this at about 5/6 weeks because I couldn't get my crack to heal no matter what I tried and I didn't want to use nipple shields. I knew LO would eventually take a bottle because I would go back to work so I wanted to introduce a bottle at some point anyways. He had no problem going back to the breast after those 2 days, it gave me time to heal and I never had another problem with cracked nipples after that.