bleeding nipple - any solutions?

[YorkshireTeaDrinker]

I am struggling with bfing my 6 week old DD. For the past week or so she has started to fuss alot when i try to attach her a pulls off alot at the start of a feed. It's worse on the left side, which does sometimes get very full and leaky, and i think the milk might come out quite quickly, so i tried hand expressing before feeding her tonight, but she still pulled off every 10 seconds or so for thefirst few minutes.

The consequence of this is that my nipple is quite damaged and bleeding. there was a small blister on the end which has now popped, leaving an open wound. I am tempted to express from the damaged boob and bottle feed until it heals as i don't want her to get blood in the milk and i don't want it to get worse. I would welcome advice as to whether this is sensible, or should i keep offering the boob and try to improve her latching on?

[countless]

hi, hopefully some very knowledgeable bf people will come along and give really expert advice but meanwhile..
i've bf 3 dc and had bleeding nipple probs at your stage. well done for sticking at it even when experiencing pain.

do you have lansinoh? nipples will heal fast if you use lansinoh constantly and try to air them a little

do you have a pump? i used the medela swing electric pump and it worked brilliantly. you'll need to pump to maintain your supply.

can your hv recommend a bf counsellor?

sorry didn't want your post unanswered, hopefully this will bump it too

[Beamur]

I'm no expert, but has cracked bleeding nipples too (its soooo painful!)
I used lansinoh, but kept on feeding from the damaged one - even though it absolutely killed me. It does heal.
Hopefully someone will come along with some advice about the pulling off.

[stinkypants]

god i remember this with ds1 - he actually threw up pink milk becuase of swallowing my blood!!!
i would try not to stop using it as i know some friends who have struggled with the supply issue then.
have you got that purple tube of cream? cant remember the name but it is prevents a scab forming and works wonders... lansinoh is it??
also, when she keeps pulling off can you prevent her pulling too hard by inserting your finger in the corner of her mouth as she does it to break the seal?
is her latch ok? does your other nipple also hurt? if so maybe she's not on properly. the breastfeeding clinic swhould be able to advise you on this - i know it took a while for ds1 to get the hang of it; their mouth MUST be big and wode open and they should have breast not just nipple in their mouth.
it might be a good idea to hand express a little first, but i wouldnt intoridcue a bottle at this point as it could really mess up your supply. i'm no expert though, just talking from my experience.

[Scherbatsky]

I know exactly what you mean, its awful and I remember it well.

Things I've used/friends used are:

Lansinoh www.boots.com/en/Lansinoh-Lanolin-56g_26481

Jelonet Its actually a dressing for burns but is really good stuff, my MW gave me a prescription for it but think you can buy it over the counter.

Silverettes www.breastfeedingheaven.co.uk/breastfeeding-products/silverette-healing-cups/prod_138.html I never used them but my best friend had awful trouble with cracked nipples and they were the only thing that worked for her. They are pricey but she said she'd have paid double they were so good!

Hope things get better soon.

[YorkshireTeaDrinker]

Thanks countless. I do have a manual pump, I've used it a handful of times, mainly when I've been getting really full to siphon off any excess. Have also been applying lansinoh liberally, which I think has saved me from further damage, as we've had latching problems on and off from the start.

I have had the midwife and then the HV observe my latch and, for the time they were there, we did get a good latch, so I know we can do it! But we don't always get it right and I do tend to get on with it with a less than perfect latch, just so that I can ensure teh feed will continue.

I will try and get a breast feeding counsellor tocome and see us. i was going to call teh HV this morning, but was so tired and teery that I didn't think I'd be able to call without weeping down the phone at her! Since then I've had a couple of hours sleep and things aren't so bad now!

[beachavendrea]

hi
i had a massive open gash on my nipple, about 2 cms long and 1 cm wide it was nasty.
I tried most things to heal it. In the end i used a steriod cream called emovate i think, feed off it at less as possible, maybe very second feed and hand expressed as the pump just made the gash bigger.

Also i basically walked around with no bra for 3 weeks, it took a while but it did heal.

[YorkshireTeaDrinker]

Thanks all. It's not any thing like as bad as your experience beachavendrea, so I'm hoping that air and lansinoh will sort it out. Just tried feeding her off the offending nipple - wasn't too bad when she was on, but she kept pulling off frequently, crying lots and failing her arms about, so it was only a 10 minute feed. It's painful now though.

I have handed her over to DH, armed him with a with a bottle of EMB and am going to bed. It will all be easier when I'm not so knackered. :)

[TiredofYorks]

I had one nipple that cracked really badly and the pain was unbearable. The pain was so bad at 3 weeks that I went out and bought formula which I gave DD for a whole day, I then decided I didn't want to give up bf so expressed off the sore side and fed off the other for a whole weekend and that gave my nipple a chance to heal. I was very fortunate that doing this didn't affect my supply and if I hadn't of done it I wouldn't have carried on bf.