expressing question

[yingers74]

Ok, another silly q. Am bf my dd2. My right breast is fine, no pain but my left nipple is constantly soret & it really hurts when she feeds. Have checked my latching position with midwife and it is fine. Am thinking of expressing this breast every other feed to try and give it a break from dd2. Will this affect my supply? And if the prob continued, could I express permanently from my left breast whilst continuing to feed dd2 from my right?

yes to all your questions. I think that would be fine. Or you could try a nipple shield to help the nipple heal for a bit and see if that helps. Are you using any cream. Lanisoh is a good one

it MAY affect supply because a pump will never be as good as a baby for getting the milk out! constant expressing is a real hassle too... seriously i did it gfor ages!

i would be more inclined to try and sort the problem out before going down the expressing route (although short term it may help)

there must be a reason why it is getting sore. my mw and hv both told me my latch was fine when it wasn't. Could you try using the rugby ball hold so that she takes the left breast from the same position as the right iyswim?

I don't think it would affect supply, unless you have problems expressing, as I know some people do. I don't see why you can't express from one side only but I'm a student of the world of breastfeeding of only 5 months (though reasonable well read, IMHO), so I would bow to greater knowledge...

get lansinoh
how old is baby?

When I had the same problem (also on the left side, strangely), my fantastic MW friend recommended rubbing a bit of breast milk in and letting nipple dry naturally. Really worked for me.

Good luck, hope it gets better soon.

yingers - I had exactly the same problem and the breastfeeding counsellor I saw said it was fine to express in the short term to give yourself a break. I actually found expressing almost as painful as feeding, so it didn't help me much.

I've been sore on one side with feeding both my babies - and by sore, I mean the whole works, cracked bleeding nipples etc. What I did this time was put the baby on that side first to get it over with and just did 5 minutes, which was all I could bear, then I took her off and gave her the other, less sore side. It only took 3-4 weeks for the problem to abate. I'm still feeding 8 months on and it's great. I think I still produce slightly more milk on the right side than on the (previously problematic) left, but the baby is chubby and happy, so it's no problem.

tried the rugby hold but no better. tried to feed dd2 today on left and it killed and she was not keen on staying on, came off quite quickly and refused to go back on, seemed happier once given right! Am still going with the expressing and hoping that left gets better soon! Am doing the rub breast milk and let it dry so hopefully that will work.