If you had sore nipples at first when did the pain go?

[MissHairspray]

Hi, bf dc who is 10 days and nipples very sore. Have had the latch checked a couple of times and been told its good, and once she gets going the actual feed isn't painful (which i've been told is a sign she is well-attached) but the first minute or so really hurts. The midwives I've asked said to persevere and eventually they will toughen up, but how long will this take? I'm using lansinoh, trying to keep them dry etc and they haven't really gotten any worse in the past few days but no improvement either. Thanks

Hi MissHairspray. Congratulations on getting this far. With all 3 DCs it's been at least 2 weeks before I've not had to curl my toes and count to 10 whilst they've latched on.

I've always found it painful to start with, but after a couple of weeks it's definately pain free.

For me the first 3 weeks were bad, the next three uncomfortable and then it was all fine from six weeks onwards. That lainshoh cream and hot baths helped hugely.

Still struggling 8 weeks on :(

But I also have a painful let down. Could that be part of the pain?

Sorry to say but it took 6 weeks for my nipples to toughen with my son and 4 weeks this time with my daughter. It will get better I promise and soon you'll be feeding with hardly any sensation! It's worth it, keep going! And why does no one ever mention that it's not always a bad latch that causes pain but it does take time for the nipples to get used to being sucked hard every 2-3 hours!

about 4 weeks. BUT now it is totally worth it. DD is 16 weeks

My nipples were hypersensitive and tingly for about 4 weeks I think - I never got any pain when actually feeding, more afterwards they would tingle loads.

I had thrush with ds1 and had large cracks as well as pain, took a while to get rid of thrush so pain lasted 10 weeks.

With ds2 no thrush and totally pain free 2 weeks after he was born.

The initial latch is the worst part and as you say the fact its pain free after that suggests all is well. 10 days is very early and it sounds like you will be enjoying breastfeeding before you know it!

Thanks for your replies, it's good to see that with a bit of perseverance it should get better, I just hope I can make it to that point. 10 days isn't very old but it feels like a long time when you have someone chomping on your boobs every 2 hours!