worm I bf'd dd for 12 months. Does that make me experienced? :)
heres what i think i know on the subject of cracked nips.
I am afraid that sore nips can be part and parcel of it at the very beginning, I had one very sore cracked nipple after dd suckled for 6 hours straight when we were in hospital-I was smacked out on morphine and she was latched on and because of my c section there was no milk there and she had drained the colostrum. It was the efforts of one lovely midwife that got me through to the next day when my milk did come in. My dh came to visit that day and his greeting to me was "Hello Jordan"
Breast milk is actually incredibly healing in itself, if the latch is right then there should be no friction on the nipple at all so it is bathed in a mouthful of breastmilk as baby feeds, this will help the pain and the healing. The let down can be a bit painful at first-I used to count through it and breathe.
There is one ESSENTIAL product that shall not ever be compromised on: repeat after me ladies LANSINOH LANSINOH LANSINOH. It is expensive but it is VITAL if your nips are sore. Pack some in your hospital bag. My old midwife described it as honey for sore nipples-it softens, heals, creates a bit of a barrier.
One old wives tale from my dear grandma was to drink some milk myself-the midwife poo pooed it saying there was no correlation between what you drank and making milk-you just need to be thoroughly hydrated. But my grandma breastfed 11 kids so I felt inclined to listen to her. DH bought me a 2 pinter of milk which I drank and my milk came in the next day-after 6 days of nothing.
and keep twiddling-nipple stimulation helps at lot.
My nips feels all tingly and weird now after talking about it. Feels like the let down-if I start leaking now worm i'm blaming you :)