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Infant feeding

Get advice and support with infant feeding from other users here.

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Original poster

Help- bleeding from nipple!

15 replies

milkandnosugar · 15/12/2011 19:21

Background- ds is 18 weeks, until 11 weeks and 6 long days I had very cracked, painful and (sometimes) bleeding nipples- bad enough that the infant feeding advisor has suggested they probably will not look quite the same again. After 12 weeks something changed and feeding has been pretty much pain free since then, I know if the latch isn't good and reposition ASAP.
Cut to tonight when ds comes off and blood is literally pouring from his mouth, a few seconds later he brings up more with his milk. It's definitely my nipple not from him and he is otherwise fine (had his third set of injections today but doing ok).
I've still got jelonet from last time and have put some on, is there anything else I should/can do? I haven't noticed anything different about our feeding and was in fact just congratulating myself this morning for sticking at the hellish first few weeks and really enjoying feeding the wee guy. I can't bear the thought that it's all going to go wrong again. Argh

OP posts:

TruthSweet · 15/12/2011 19:28

Can you phone one of the breastfeeding helplines tonight? It sounds like you need to speak to someone trained who would be able to help you work out what's happening.

Massive amounts of sympathy though and a big (hug).

Original poster

milkandnosugar · 15/12/2011 19:58

Thanks tried all of them now but I'm guessing all the Scottish volunteers are out for their Christmas do's. Wee guy just brought more bloody milk back up. It's just horrible.

OP posts:

TruthSweet · 15/12/2011 21:03

I'm not a trained bfc (just started training!) but I wonder if you have injured one of the ducts somehow - maybe a knock or expressing with too strong a suction?

Can you get to a walk-in/out of hours centre/call the maternity unit to speak to an Infant Feeding Co-ordinatior or Matron? I'm just worried if you are bleeding heavily enough for it to be seen in vomit/pour out of baby's mouth that you need medical treatment/assessment asap.

Is it both sides or just one? If it is only one feeding off the non-bleeding side might help with your DS's vomiting (blood in the stomach often triggers vomiting - DH does this after nose bleeds) whilst very gently hand expressing on bleeding side if you get uncomfortable.

I really hope you are able to access help soon.

Original poster

milkandnosugar · 15/12/2011 21:36

Thanks, it is just one side so I've fed him this evening from the non-bleeding side. I haven't expressed milk for about a fortnight but just hand expressed from the affected side now and there was just a small amount of blood. Infant feeding time just office hours so I need to wait till tomorrow morning. I would feed him from the non sore side all night, but typically my supply is massively lopsided in favour of the sore side (it has always been) and I'm concerned I just don't have enough milk if I do that. When I was bleeding previously it made him sick and the infant feeding advisor said it was because it irritates the baby's stomach.

OP posts:

TruthSweet · 15/12/2011 21:47

I'm glad the bleeding appears to be lessening. You could try feeding 2 out of 3 feeds on the non bleeding side just to give it a chance to clot and start to heal up.

If you feel faint or unwell in anyway, do call NHS Direct/OOH GP (just concerned in case you have had a larger than realised bleed)to get assessed.

Original poster

milkandnosugar · 15/12/2011 22:02

I will try that ta. It does seem to have been quite a bit of blood as his baby grow and muslin cloth looked like something from a horror movie. He will probably sleep till about 2am now so hopefully the nipple can heal a little. I just don't have loads of confidence in out of hours etc to give good breastfeeding advice as they seem to have very little experience and a bf-ing mum is probably much more help.

OP posts:

TruthSweet · 15/12/2011 22:16

I was thinking more if you are unwell in yourself rather than them giving you bfing 'advice' (at best it would be a quizzical look in some places and at worst you would probably get told to stop).

Hope you get a chance to heal up and it was a one off but definitely worth checking out with the IFA.

TruthSweet · 16/12/2011 16:19

Ho are you doing today? Is the bleeding still going on?

Original poster

milkandnosugar · 16/12/2011 16:46

Hi,
Called infant feeding advisor today and she is as stumped as me as to why this is happening, I've got an appointment on wednesday and been advised to express for a couple of days to see what happens. Thats fine at night when dad's here to give a bottle but during the day ds refuses point blank to take a bottle from me.
On the upside, there doesn't seem to be new blood, ds has brought up milk each time he's had milk from that side but it is brown not bright red like last night so assuming its old blood. I've just changed a frankly horrible brown nappy full of black bits of blood -hoping thats just from yesterday and/or side effects of yesterday's inoculations. I don't know if I should just expect the nipple to re-open every so often. It was badly damaged. Its just quite distressing to finish a feed and see ds look like a mini vampire.

OP posts:

TruthSweet · 16/12/2011 17:53

What was the rational behind expressing for a few days? Less damage to nipples/you'd be able to see how much bleeding?

Have you had a swab done of the nipple and cultures done of that and your milk? If you have a wound that just won't heal there might be an infection behind it like staph. or another bacteria.

OlivesIncubator · 16/12/2011 20:55

Hi Milk,
This happened to me a few weeks back. I had a slightly cracked nipple and a mildly sore breast. I was worried that I was getting a blocked duct so fed my baby a lot on that side. After a feed I left her in her swing when I left the room and came back to find her COVERED in blood and sitting in a pool of it in her swing. I had a feeling it was due to a prob with my breast and was fairly confident that she wasn't ill, particularly as she was smiling in the middle of it, but didn't think my nipple was bad enough to cause so much blood. My paramedic sis in law said I should take her to a & e. They were concerned by the amount of blood she had vomited and admitted us overnight and did tests on her- so horrible watching them put a canula in her five-week-old baby arm. They gave me a breast pump to express from the side that I thought had caused the problem and sure enough, as soon as I started to pump pure blood came out. It was horrifying, slowly that became bloody milk. Turned out I had damaged a vessel by struggling with my hand breast pump at home, which i am now too scared to use.
Could you have damaged something in a similar way? My baby also had the brown flecks in the nappy. It is the digested blood.
The paediatrician told me to carry on breast feeding and not to worry if it happened again, as long as baby looked well, it wouldn't hurt her and the BFN helped me sort out my boobs.

Hope you get it sorted out soon.

Original poster

milkandnosugar · 16/12/2011 22:28

The rationale for expressing was to give the nipple a chance to heal, if indeed that is the problem. I was swabbed twice (last time about six weeks ago) because the IFA could think of no other reason I won't healing but both came back as clear.
It's very interesting what you say olive, as on the surface there was only the tiniest speck of blood visible and even hand expressing there has been no blood- it only comes when ds feeds and is obviously emptying the milk more fully. Tbh, I haven't had the need to pump at all for the last few weeks so don't think I could've injured it that way and now like you, I feel scared to try the pump just in case of more gore. In the end how did your breast heal?
The crazy thing is that this is my second baby, I bf ds1 for seven months without any problems whatsoever AND with no support- just can't believe the amount of bother I've had this time around.

OP posts:

TruthSweet · 16/12/2011 22:47

This might help but I do think that calling an IBCLC might be worthwhile (IBCLC is the highest level of bfing training available in the world) as it really sounds like something is going on - be it structural in the breast or something that could be tweaked within bfing to stop it happening again. I really don't know enough to provide any further info - sorry.

Glad the swabs came back negative that must have been a relief!

Original poster

milkandnosugar · 17/12/2011 08:30

Thanks very much for the links Truth. The first in particular is very reassuring. More red blood (just a wee bit though) this morning but baby absolutely fine. I will try calling one of the counsellors.
The bit about damage to the breast is interesting as lately junior has taken to kind of thumping while he feeds sometimes and I wonder if that perhaps might have caused some sort of damage.

OP posts:

OlivesIncubator · 17/12/2011 19:11

My breast healed on it's own. I think it took about a week from when I damaged it, but even though I noticed the little brown specks in her nappy at first I didn't realise there was a prob until she vomited. When I expressed in the hospital it went from full blood, through to pink milk to milk in one pumping session. I didn't have any more problems after that.

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