Supply issues and pink milk!?

[Sleepybunny]

Apologies for the bonkers thread title.

DD2 is 2 weeks old, BFing is a bit of a struggle and we're just taking it one feed at a time at the moment.

She can feed well in the day, taking both breasts and seemingly satisfied after 20-30min feeds.

As the day goes on however she wants to cluster feed and becomes less and less satisfied after feeds. I'm guessing it's just my supply dipping a bit, so thought I'd express a bit of milk during the day to give her a bottle before bed.

I'm stuggling to express more than 3oz over 2 pumping sessions (10-20min per breast per session)

DD2 can be quite an aggressive feeder, clamping down and writhing a bit when she's passing wind.

Nipples are pretty damaged and I'm doing everything I can to hell them heal. Now when I express, the milk is bright pink (blood in there I'm guessing not strawberry flavored)

So is it safe to let her feed from me if that's what the milk is like? I've just dumped the pink expressed stuff as it looked so vile.

Also how much fussing and cluster feeding is normal. Seems like she is at it for hours and get fustrated at time, hence wanting to give her a bottle.

[ThumbWitchesAbroad]

Yes it's fine to feed with a bit of blood in - but too much might make her vomit. I first realised my nipples were bleeding when DS1 vomited blood - I panicked like nothing on earth, but it turned out it was mine, not his!

The GP suggested expressing from that boob until it healed, about 3 days - and only feeding from the other side (which wasn't so destroyed).

If the bleeding carries on though you should go and see the GP - it should heal pretty quickly, if it doesn't you need to get checked out.

There is no "normal" for cluster feeding, afaik - they're all different. Has your DD been checked for tongue tie? Can you get her checked? TT, even quite mild-appearing ones, can severely affect the baby's ability to latch successfully, so they don't get as much milk as they want, or fast enough, and they hurt quite a lot in their quest to get good flow. (Been there, got the T-shirt)

[Sleepybunny]

Thabks for the reply. That's good to hear. I think I would have a heart attack too if DD had vomited blood!

No tongue tie that could be seen, she is quite petite though and has a small mouth, it's difficult to get enough nipple in there at times and get her lips to properly flange out.

[fruitpastille]

I've also had the pink milkmilk/vampire baby. Hv said to think of it as extra iron! I used nipple shields for months to try and avoid recurrence with some success. Also lansinoh to help healing.

[madwomanbackintheattic]

Yeah pink milk. I also used to get chunks of nipple fall off too. Extra protein, right? no one tells you this stuff at all.
I would try and use nipple shields for a bit to let them heal as much as possible, and do get someone to check your latch if you can. A certain amount of this stuff is normal, but it should settle down as you both get better at it - get checked out if not. And if it is really bright pink, I would be doing as much as I can to promote healing - mine was only ever pale strawberry... See if you can work at getting her to open her mouth properly before you latch so that she gets a good mouthful and isn't dangling off the end.
And congratulations!