OMG my nipples

[mandler]

DS (first baby) is 3 wks old today and I am bf. My nipples are incredibly sore still though. The pain comes when he latches for a few seconds, and also when I get cold and my nips get hard!
Baby is slowly gaining weight, he lost a bit when born so is playing catch up a bit.
HVs have said he is latching fine but I have my doubts, my nipple is lopsided when he is done and sometimes halfway through a feed he squirms and it gets painful again.
He also screams every nght so we are giving him Colief on the advice of a pharmacist.
Any advice on what to do? How do I get someone (who knows what they are talking about) to come to the house and sit with me? I live in north London....
Starting to get very depressed by it, dreading feeds, need help fast

[CarGirl]

contact the NCT & La Leche League they both have telephone helplines and may have a councillor in your area who will visit you or you them to help out. Also check on line to see if there are any drop-in clinics at local hospitals/health centres etc

[policywonk]

No specific advice, but just wanted to say 'poor you'. My nipples were very painful for the first six weeks or so of feeding DS1 (no cracks, just felt a bit raw, especially at the beginning of a feed - excatly as you describe it).

It is definitely worth getting his latch checked by a proper counsellor - not all HVs are well-trained in this respect. I was told that DS1's latch was fine, but in retrospect I don't think he was opening his mouth wide enough, and my nipped wasn't going far enough into his mouth. You know that the baby's mouth is supposed to cover the entire areola?

If it's any help, things got a LOT less painful for me around the six-week mark, and I ended up feeding him for 22 months (instead of giving up at three months, which had been my original intention).

[monkeybird]

see also 'feel very low' and some good some bad threads started by Stefka in similar position to you - lots of suggestions (if you're the kind of person who wants them!) in there and defo contact one of the helplines and your local groups who might be able to send someone out. Some hospitals also have in house BF specialists who run clinics. Or local baby/BF cafes have visiting specialists...

Good luck and many of us have been there and can assure you it WILL get better...