Nipple bleeding?

trish051003

I never had a nipple bleed before - but less than 24 hours of nursing and I got a bloody nipple - gross!  Her latch was checked by and LC several times in the hospital.  Her little chin is in more than out so I have to be careful to pull out her little lower lip and make sure she opens wide enough.

Has anyone else had a bloody nipple?  Anything I should be concerned about now that I'm nursing a vampire?

I am careful w/ the latch and using lanoline/ gel pads.

Anything else I should be aware of?  Thanks!

DanielleB27

I had bloody nipples in the very beginning, because my little one was tongue tied and has a bubble palate (she would pinch me every time she sucked) and I ended up getting a prescription for "magic nipple cream" from my doc to help heal them. It worked wonders (and fast!) It won't help the problem from happening again if she is still not latching quite right, but it will help the healing along with the lanoline.

hillek5

We had latch issues that led to bleeding nipples, as well.  I used a lot of lanolin and rubbed a little bit of expressed milk into them after feeds.

The thing I would warn you to watch for is infection and/or thrush.  Bleeding means that the tisue is irritated enough to be more prone to infection.  Warm, moist places are great breeding grounds for problems.  Just keep dry (but not over-dry...using a little expressed milk after feeds and a thin layer of lanolin was great for this) and watch for signs of problems--burning, itching, redness, or drainage.

bunniekrissy

I had cracked, bleeding nipples the first 4 weeks. Then they healed and stopped hurting. I'm not sure what the issue was, but we kept working on latch and eventually it got better. I used lanolin and had to keep water off them for a few days to get them to heal.