Pain in breast - normal pregnancy symptom or something sinister?

[DitaVonCheese]

Evening :) I'm having pains in my breasts and getting a bit concerned so wondered if anyone had any words of wisdom.

I'm 15 wks pg and still bfing 2yo DD. My nipples have been sore from pretty early on (showers - ouch!) but this seemed to wear off a couple of weeks ago then suddenly came back with a vengeance. For the last um week or so (?) I've occasionally been having agonising pain in my nipples when DD latches on (real newborn hot wire stuff) but it seems to get better after she's latched on and also varies from feed to feed (think early morning ones are worst). I have to work quite hard not to scream when she latches on because I don't want to freak her out - have lost that fight a couple of times though I assumed it was just my supply drying up but I think there is still some milk there and she says there is (she seems a bit confused by the question though, so not relying on this).

Today and I think yesterday I have been having intermittent shooting pains in my breast, mainly on the RHS though slightly on the left as well. At this point I started to get worried that it may not be a pregnancy thing after all.

FWIW I have long been concerned that DD and I have been passing thrush backwards and forwards - I had it very badly (vaginally) for a few months last year but was eventually cleared up via a triple whammy of cream, pessary and wash. DD has had a rash (pink pinprick type thing) on her nappy area for more or less forever which I've had no success in getting HCPs to take seriously - now we just manage it with creams such as canesten or timodene. I haven't seen symptoms in her mouth or my nipples at any stage but don't think (??) that you always get them. I'm now concerned that I've had some sort of latent thrush for a while and now I'm so knackered (first trimester + DD has just dropped her nap) it has suddenly got a second wind.

Or is this just the reality of bfing while pg and I'm worrying over nothing?

The bit about shooting pains makes me think thrush.

Even if your dd has no symptoms, you both need treated.

some info here

Good luck

Thanks - have just read that, via kellymom. It's the shooting pains that make me think thrush too. Argh :( Everything I've read (and I read quite a lot about it a while ago when I started suspecting we both had it) seems to suggest it's near impossible to treat and HCPs aren't very good about it. In fact last time I ended up bickering with DH because I wanted to buy a load of fluoconazole (?sp) from an online pharmacy and he thought I was nuts ...

Not sure what you can take thrush wise when pg though, so you need to be careful.

Maybe worth getting treated as best you can and doing all the boiling knickers/towels etc?

I had thrush when pg with ds2 and it disappeared as if by magic when he was born. I was lucky though that it didn't affect ds1 who was still nursing, and apart from a couple of shooting pains in the breasts, I had no other symptoms apart from down below.

Hmm - maybe my usual trick of ignoring it and seeing what happens will work then

About to collapse from exhaustion so off to bed but will do some research tomorrow. Tomorrow night ironically enough I'm observing an NCT bfing class - perhaps I should collar the teacher at the end and demand answers?

BBC info - mother's symptoms sound about right apart from the cracked nipples bit. Eep. On the plus side though, it's reminded me that a nice lady doctor gave me some gel ages ago to put on my nipples, so might go and dig that out before bed. DD will be over the moon, she's a medicine junkie

Okay, very confused now. Last night thought I would check my nipples to see if they were red/shiny/flaky/etc (nice!). Didn't seem to be any of those things but they did have lots (half a dozen+ on LHS, fewer on the right) of little white dots like whiteheads, which is what I thought blocked ducts looked like. Did have a blocked duct ages ago though, when DD was four months, and was very different - whole breast was very hot and sore and masses of milk came out when I cleared it. Squeezed all these out (ow!) and no spurts of milk but could be difference in my supply I suppose? Have noticed my breasts being heavier and fuller over the past week or so (started passing the pencil test!) but assumed it was pregnancy. They have now shrunk again (fail pencil test :() and morning feed with DD was less painful and felt as though she was getting more milk. Does this sound as though it could just be a load of blocked ducts?

Hope this all makes sense, fighting toddler for control of keyboard!

Oh bother

"Thrush (yeast), can also cause milk blisters. Thrush occasionally appears as tiny white spots on the nipple, but can also appear as larger white spots that block one or more milk ducts. If you have more than one blister at the same time, suspect thrush as the cause." (from Kellymom)

get thee to doc

Appt booked for tomorrow morning :) though do not really trust GPs to know anything about bfing!

Hope you get on ok Dita.

I think it must be catching because I started getting stabbing pains in my boob last night.

DS2 has white in his mouth and horrible nappy rash, and come to think of it he had antibiotics a couple of weeks ago.

And now my nipples have a slight burny feeling.

I think I need the doc too.....

Have dug out the BFN leaflet though. It has got a tear off bit on it for the doc.

Oh dear - I feel strangely responsible! Hope you manage to get it sorted.

Where in your DS's mouth does he have white patches? I noticed that DD has white on the back of her tongue earlier but could have been from her marathon post-pre-school nursing session.

At least if you're not pg you have the option of fluconazole, if you can get a decent course prescribed. I've come back with miconazole cream for me and nystatin stuff for DD so hopefully this will clear things up ...