Severe pain; blood in breast pad

[Casserole]

Just wondering if any of you lactation experts are on tonight: am BFing my 11 week old DD; she is my second and I BFed my first for 9 months. Have been struggling with my right boob on and off for weeks now; had what I thought was a bocked milk duct a few weeks ago. Cleared it through much massaging, expressing, hot compresses but pain never entirely went away though lessened.

Pain came back worse earlier this week. Am v careful with my latch; it is only this one breast and I am pretty sure the latch is good; went to my local NHS BFing support group and the woman there thought that latch was fine too though didn't have much else to suggest. Went to GP who thought it might be thrush so I have been applying Canestan since Friday morning. Haven't fed from this boob for 3 days, too painful, been feeding from the other and expressing the bad one. But the pain is worse today (constant deep stabbing / throbbing) and there is blood on my breast pad tonight.

Any suggestions please???

[TribbleWithoutACause]

Ok, I would ring one of the breastfeeding lines.

It does sound like thrush with the deep stabbing pains, how much are you getting off of the breast? The thing is pumping will not clear the 'bad' breast as effectively as a baby, is there anyway you could get her to feed from it? Have you got any nipple shields?

How do you feel? Do you feel fluey at all?

[TribbleWithoutACause]

Actually how does your nipple look? Is it cracked and sore at all?

The blood could be from your nipple or from a broken capillary.

Hopefully tiktok should be along soon.

[crikeybadger]

Have you been treating your DD for thrush too? You need to treat both of you, otherwise you'll be passing it back and forth.

[Casserole]

Thank you for the quick replies

I'm not fluey or temperaturey at all.
I get between 3-5oz out of it depending on the time of day - supply's never been my problem, quite the opposite, have too much milk for her sometimes.

One part of the nipple is a bit swollen, and it has small red spots on it; I would have said quite possibly broken capillary type things. And a couple of white spots but it's hard to tell whether they are milk below the surface or thrush type ones. They don't look quite like the pictures I've seen. The white spots have only come out today.

Re treating dd: no, I did ask but GP would only treat me in the first instance. She said that as I was expressing that breast and not feeding from it and as DD isn't showing any symptoms that would be enough. I wasn't massively happy about that but that was all that was on offer.

Also - am still feeding DD the expressed milk. Is that ok? GP said so but would appreciate advice from any in the know.

She said to try the cream for 3 days and go back if no improvements. I didn't expect instant recovery, just didn't expect it to get worse in those days. y'know?

[MissMarjoribanks]

I had this. Twice. So badly that I massively panicked when I woke up to find DS asleep surrounded by blood. He'd posseted mine back up. It's not thrush - will be a broken capillary near the nipple. BIL is a doctor and says there are blood vessels near the nipple which can be broken easily by a bit of a crack. Although you could have thrush as well of course.

I found that the quickest way to sort it was to feed off it, not express. I took paracetemol and just gritted my teeth through the pain. It was worse than labour but it sorted itself out within a couple of days. And Lanisoh.

Expressed milk will be fine - I had loads of advice that a bit of mum's blood isn't going to hurt.

[TribbleWithoutACause]

White spots could be milk blisters, they just look like teeny tiny spots. I've had them and they could be why you're feeling pain. If your milk is backed up it will ache. I had milk blisters and blocked ducts when I started feeding (and bloody thrush, I feel your pain). Now I'm not recomending this but I went into the shower and went at them myself with a combination of a flannel and fingernails to pull it out aka kellymom.

Have you taken any ibuprofen? If not, I would take some to reduce any inflamation and take the edge off of things for yourself as well.

[TribbleWithoutACause]

Also I did feed off of my bad breast when I had the milk blisters as that was what everyone told me to do. A baby really is the best thing for clearing the breast. I won't lie and say it didn't hurt because it did but in the end I did get sorted and we got pain free feedings after a few days.

[crikeybadger]

Mmmm, I'd go back to that GP with this leaflet from the BfN.

I'm not sure you'll knock it on the head just by treating you. Obviously I'm no doctor but sometimes their bfing knowledge is a tad lacking shall we say.

Hope you feel better soon, sounds awful for you. Oh and yes you can feed the expressed milk to LO.

[Casserole]

I have fed through the milk blisters / blocked ducts before... but I seem to get a week of better feeds then they come back. Which is why I wondered if there was an underlying cause like thrush or something.

Just to clarify it wasn't the blood bit that concerned me re feeding the expressed milk, but the thrush bit. Sorry, I wasn't clear.

Sigh. Well, I've just expressed, applied cream and taken some ibuprofen. Will get some sleep and see how they are in the morning. Thanks for your kind words ladies.

[crikeybadger]

This is good too for trying to work out if it is thrush or something else.

[crikeybadger]

Yep, according to wise old Kellymom you can feed expressed milk if you have thrush. There's some debate about whether you should freeze it though.

Hope you manage to get some rest.

[Casserole]

Thank you Crikey, that's all really helpful. V grateful to you all.