Bleeding nipples!

[Moodykat]

Please can someone guide me?! Had DS2 yesterday and he has fed about 12 times. My nipples are both bleeding now and it hurts! Am fairly sure I've got the latch right as nipple is the right shape when it comes out. Am at a bit of a loss!
With DS1 I had to give up at 3 weeks due to infections and various reasons but would like to try and feed this one for much longer! And the midwife isn't coming out until Saturday!
TIA.

Congratulations on DS2. I've not had bleeding nipples but have breastfed all mine. Sounds pretty poor that the midwife is not coming to you ntil Saturday. Can you get someone there tomorrow - Iknow that must soudna long way away at nearly midnight now. Canyou get back to the hospital and ask the midwives there for help?

Hopefully someone on here will have better practical advice. Anyone?

I had this with all 3 of my children. I can remember with my first getting a pen out and drawing around my dd mouth while on the nipple to see what I was doing wrong. I had reached desperation by this point!
All 3 were latched on properly and by day 10 I found nipples had healed and hardened enough so no longer bled or was agony. One midwife told me it was because I had fair skin but never worked out why mine cracked and bled in the early days. I found some nipple creams helped. Good luck and hopefully it will get easier. I bf all 3 of mine until they were 1, so once you are over the early days hopefully it will get better.

I'm no expert, but I think things like tongue tie can cause problems even when the latch looks OK from 'outside' and I do know from experience that a latch can look right but still be improved on and some babies just have really small mouths when born and so things improve when they get bigger.

I had bleeding nipples quite early on, it was awful and my DD was getting mouthfuls of blood when feeding. I found smothering them in Lansinoh and moist wound healing worked much better than airdrying as although they took longer to heal, they weren't scabbing over and so stopped bleeding altogether.

So until I get some nipple cream do I just have to cry and bear it?! Suck it up so to speak? Have fucked up a bit and given him a dummy just now as he was (understandably) sucking for comfort and it was making things worse!

In all honesty, it took a while of using the cream and therefore my nipples healing a bit before it stopped hurting so much. Mine was worse on one side and I kept referring to it to DH as 'the agony boob'.

Can you take paracetamol? My DD will be 6 weeks old on Monday and I have only stopped taking it 4x a day a few days or so ago (although admittedly had mastitis too). Not sure it will help, but I know I at least felt like it did. Soaking he nipples with warm water prior to a feed might lessen the bleeding, I know soaking in a bath helped me quite a bit. Some supermarkets sell Lansinoh, so if there's a 24hr one near you they might have some?

I spend quite a lot of time crying in pain and crying because I knew I would have to feed from that side at the next feed and I would hesitate to latch on etc and it was all totally, totally awful, I hated BF because of it. However, I know everyone says it, but it does soon pass, so if you can hang on in there then it will get better pretty quickly. Really it will.

I 'fucked up' an dgave DD an expressed bottle at 6 days old, oir rather I sent DH off with DD and the bottle and at that point didn't care less if DD never fed fromt he breast again, I was in so much pain. As it turned out, I hadn't fucked up at all and today I can't imagine having felt like that. You just have to do what you can to get through at he time, don't beat yourself up for it.

Sorry, I've gone on a bit...

Try washing them and leaving exposed to air to help healing. I have used aloe vera from an actual plant (from garden shop) on sore skin and it was sooo soothing (just wash off before a feed).
It will settle quite quickly but I know it's agony to begin with. They used to prescribe a barrier spray for really bad cases ... don't know if it's still available.
If lo latched on well can see their little jaw and ears move as they suck. TRy la leche league or NCT for bf counsellor if need more help... or ring for mw to come tomorrow.
Congrats by the way!!

Congratulations :)

I had similar problems due to tongue tie. Definitely try nipple cream and painkillers. I would also give the labour ward a ring and speak to a midwife - you are still under their care for the next couple of weeks, I think.

DS had expressed milk from a bottle every now and then from about 2 weeks to give me a chance to heal - still bf now at 16 months, so no real harm done. I'm sure he'll be fine after the dummy!

Thanks all for help! Am still bleeding and in agony when I feed so have started expressing as it doesn't hurt or cause the bleeding. He seems a lot more content taking it from a bottle and settles much better but I would love to be able to go back to feeding normally, especially at night. Think it may be that the latch isn't quite right but am not sure what to do about it!

I was the same! Ds now 4 weeks and things got better when he was around 10 days. Day 6 I gave him a bottle of ebm and formula just as I was in tears at thought of feeding. Then the bottle made me cry more as I felt like total failure!! He's feeding normally now ie every hour or 2. Nipples hardened and I used lanisoh ( sp??) it helped but no miracle cure. I bought nipple sheilds for when I was at wits end but never used them. Things got better feed by feed and I think that's how I got thru!! Take it one feed at a time and take paracetamol for pain and things really will get better. Good luck Hun xo

It does sound like there is a problem. I saw a private lactation consultant as there was no real bf support in my area, but from your profile it would seem that there are a few places that might be able to give hands on support and advice. Perhaps you could ask the midwife for further info when you see her.

Hopefully the midwife will be able to help tomorrow, but if not try to see if someone can help at a drop in clinic - there are details of a breastfeeding clinic here that is appointment only, but might be in your area.

The Royal Berkshire also has info on tongue tie (if it ends up being an issue)here - they basically say you should get in touch with the infant feeding coordinator for advice.

For what it's worth, my DS had no problem going back to bf after taking expressed milk from the bottle.