Help! Going insane

[END08]

DS is now 8 and a half weeks old, and I'm BF.

I BF my DD who's now 2 untill she was 7 months old, and yeah I found it tough to start (had mastitis and then thrush) with but things got better.

With DS, I had mastitis and thrush afterwards, but recognised the symptoms as soon as they started and saw my GP straight away.

But, OMG, feeding him is still hell. Am still experiencing cracked nipples (sorry TMI) although not that deep now (plastering with Lansinoh), pain in nipples after feeding, as well as they are changing colour, they will go very white, before going purple/blue and back to normal.

BF counsellor says its my latch. So whenever I'm feeding, I keep taking him off and trying to put him back on so that its pain free, but it's just not happening.

Am sitting here thinking about going and buying formula because I cannot cope with the pain, and I'm basically arguing with myself because I feel so guilty if I'll stop because I fed DD for longer.

Will it get any better, he's almost 9 weeks now, and I just can't see the light at the end of the tunnel.

I know that he's not struggling, he was 8lb4.5oz when he was born, and 2 weeks ago he weighed 12lb11oz.

Any advice would be great.
Sorry bout the rambling

Hi END08
Sounds tough
Blimey you have done brilliantly to have got this far, and can congratulate yourself on that! If you do go down the formula route it will be ok, you have made a fabulous start to your little boys health

But sounds to me like you want to continue BFing if posible? Have you been feeding in front of counsellor? Can they get a good latch? Is it realistic to expect a pain free latch at the mo with your battered nips?

I have nothing dramatic to suggest apart from keeping that purple tube handy, taking paracetamol, and perhaps seeing if expressing is possible every now and again, amybe by hand instead of pump?- to help you heal up a bit. However, someone who knows what they are talking about may well rubbish all of that so will be happy to be corrected!

Good luck, and if you do carry on BFing get yourself to a support group asap for some positive strokes and to keep your motivation up!

Sorry to hear it's not going as smoothly as you'd hoped. Sounds like he is doing great otherwise.

Have you seen the very helpful websites kellymom and drjacknewman? The second one in particular really helped me as I couldn't see what was wrong with my latch with DD (2nd baby) but it has videos showing latch problems in great detail and one may just strike a chord with you.

Good luck!

oh that sounds so painful - I really feel for you.
I found that as well as lansinoh, jelonet really, really helped my nips heal. Didn't matter how good the latch was, when I had cracked nipples it hurt like hell, and moist wound healing was the answer.

Could your lo have a tongue tie? The reason I ask is because I attended a bf group when DD was a few weeks old. There was a women there with exactly the same problem as you - baby thriving but latch extremely painful and her nipples were practically hanging off, poor thing. The bfc said that the baby had a minor tongue tie.

You poor thing :(

It sounds (from the colour changing nipples) like it's a circulation problem whihc may or may not be caused by a bad latch. See this section of kellymom, especially the bit about Raynauds of the nipple. See if gently applying dry heat to your nipple straight after a feed/whenever they hurt helps. You could keep a flannel on the radiator for this or put a wheat cushion in the microwave.

If it's any encouragement, my ds is 12.5 weeks and I've only had pain free feeding for about the last week. I don't know why it took so long to get there or what's changed but sometimes these things just seem to take time. I really hope you get there soon :)