Help - boob agony while feeding - mastitis????

[CocktailQueen]

My sister is staying over Christmas and is is bfing her 1yo dd. She has a really sore boob - agnoy when she feeds, though milk is coming out as normal. No red inflamed patch on the boob, no fever, she feels fine in herself. What could it be, oh wise ones?? Thanks :)

Is her boob hard after feeding? Where is the pain?

It could be a plugged duct - try here for symptoms of plugged ducts & mastitis and here for nipple pain.

She can also call the bfing helplines to speak to someone about the pain.

Hope she feels better soon.

Where is the pain? In the nipple or breast?

Her boob is tender all the time but much worse when feeding. Both nipple and boob are sore.

Any lumps in the breast? White spots on the nipple tip?

Baby's mouth ok? Any white spots/apparent soreness (unwillingness to feed?), nappy rash (likely red weals that break down painfully V quickly).

Any soreness to nipple?

Any history of breast pain?

Sorry, you've said the nipple is sore. What I meant was more specifically, is there any damage to the nipple or flaky skin, pinkness, anything obvious looking at it?

Carrotcake - haven't looked :) but the skin on her nipple is sore and cracked. But that started after her boob began to be sore. There shoudn;t be any problem with the latch as my niece is 12 months old!

Also - baby's mouth is fine. No nappy rash (therefore not thrush I don't think). No history of breast pain.

Well latch can change suddenly if she's cutting a tooth, say, or something is making her mouth sore. This can then lead to a blocked duct and/or cracked nipple out of the blue. She might try to go back to basics a bit and see how it feels.

I'm also wondering about thrush which can strike on one side then spread to the other quite quickly. It can be outrageously painful down to just darned uncomfortable. Sometimes you can see a pink or flaky nipple, or a whitish colour. It's pretty tough to diagnose but one of those things that once you've had it, you know. If she's had vaginal thrush over the past few days that's more likely to be the problem, too. The nappy rash on bub is another potential symptom, or sometimes they get white spots in the mouth.

What does she feel it might be?

Sorry X post with your last :)

Thanks carrot - sis has no idea what could be wrong!

Could be what I had. Is it every time the baby feeds and no other time?

FWIW, from the second both my kids latched on after birth until 4.5m my nipples were excruciatingly painful even though there was no infections, no plugged/blocked ducts/thrush/mastitis/engorgement/tongue-tie/cutting teeth etc and was treated for every infection in conjunction with BF. No treatment made a difference. The odd thing was that it was only during feeding. In between feeds I could have ripped my nipples off without much fuss.

Never found out what it was, but not concerned now as my DC's are now 5 and 6yo.