Help--cut nipple

nycgirl88 · November 2012

Wen DS was born He had troubles latching on the left side. I guess he had a really bad latch because two weeks later I had a big cut/open hole on my left nipple and my nipple had a dent in the middle. I am still dealing with the cut and he is 8 weeks old! It hurts every time he latches on and sometimes there is a little blood.

I have seen two LC who tell me his latch is fine and it will heal but this seems to be taking too long! Just when it looks like it is closing over/up...I have to feed him again and it literally rips open!

I don't want to give up BF'ing (I have gone through my fair share of problems to make it to 8weeks) but just want the pain and cut to go away.

help!!

zmoss · November 2012

I'm sorry to hear that--it is painful! I'm sure you've heard or thought of it--but when this happened to me a nipple shield really helped! I prefer the medela brand (I've used 2 of those).

Hope you heal soon!

ShabyKitty · November 2012

Same exact thing happened to me! I used a nipple shield on that side until it was visibly healed. It also helps because your nipple will sit in the breastmilk that pools in there and when you take it off, just let it air dry. I think it took about a week before mine healed up, but it was bad a chunk of nipple missing and bleeding during every feeding

rcbuko · November 2012

I agree that a nipple shield really works. I wish I knew about them when I had DD2 because she did damage to both nipples. With DS, I started with the shield in the hospital and it has made a big difference.

voleyqueen6 · November 2012

A nipple shield will definitely help. My LC also had me soak my nipples (to "clean" them) in epsom salt & warm water. It really helped!

AbuDhabiMommy · November 2012

I had the same issue. I treated it with breast milk, Lansinoh cream; but it really finally healed when I added the Lansinoh soothies. It took about a day to start feeling better after adding the gel pads, and about 10 days to finally heal.