Breastfeeding hurting - long, sorry

[Carlitawantsababy]

Hello, looking for some advice/reassurance/opinions.. I have a beautiful 5 day old DS born at 37 weeks. Breastfeeding going brilliantly in that he is initiating feeds at least every 3 hours and has wet and pooey nappies every 3 hours (currently pooing after every feed, sometimes yellow, sometimes spinach green).
It took a while to get a latch, I eventually managed it leaning over him (I know, baby to breast not breast to baby but desperate) and squashing my boob flat and inserting it in to his mouth like a sandwich! Now, I realise this is far from ideal and isn't going to work long term but needed to find a way to get milk in to him! The thing is although i know he's getting milk, I am getting pain whilst feeding, it is bearable but toe curling beyond the initial ten seconds I have read to expect and I have blisters on one nipple. I have been to a
breastfeeding support group today and chatted about different positions to try, trying 'biological nurturing' at the moment and getting bursts of similar quality/pain latch but bursts, not staying latched for long, getting frustrated and or falling asleep and 'football hold' latched and feeding but again, very painful! I'm now wondering, are my nipples hurt so going to be painful regardless? I am using Lansinoh after every feed and will stick with it even if my nipples do in fact fall off as it feels like they might but if anyone has any tips to reduce the pain level I'd really appreciate it!
Should add that DS is having a feeding frenzy day, feeding for 30-45 mins instead of 15-20 like yesterday so hasn't helped my poor nipples though hopefully he's setting up a good supply. Midwife visiting tomorrow so will ask to check latch but any stories of pain getting better etc. would help right now as it's getting worse! Sorry for garbled and lengthy post, trying to include all info!

Correction, no longer bearable, in tears after that last feed

Ask the midwife to check your DS for tongue tie. It means that the tongue is too attached to the bottom of the mouth - they can't latch properly and it makes feeding really painful. It can also mean they make a clicking sound when they feed (but not always).
Some hospitals check for it, but not all. I had it with my 2 DDs and it was dreadful - I only noticed because it was so much worse than feeding DS (1st DC)
It might not be that, but could be.
Either way, I hope it gets better soon - you have my sympathy.

Thanks bella, he was checked at birth so not that. A friend has suggested I use a shield every other feed to help them heal whilst we practice, I know they're not recommended this early on but worth a try?

it gets easier- take paracetamol regularly use cream. give it 2 weeks it gets a lot easier- i reassure you. shields not recommended as can affect how much baby gets but i did contemplate using these a few weeks ago. My baby boy is now 3.5 weeks. just try and distract yourself when feeding put tv on or when I had my daughter 4 yrs ago i used to bite my husbands finger when feeding! what breast pads are you using? make sure these are dry and dont allow them to get wet. hope this helps :)

Thanks gelsa taking paracetamol regularly anyway for pelvic pain so goodness knows what the nipple pain would be like without! Will try the shields only every other feed just to give my nipples a chance.. I've some avent pads at the moment but have only used the one set, they haven't been wet at all, not leaking when I'm not feeding and feeding bare breasted without pads due to difficulties with positioning and latch. I'm not supposed to be leaking all the time am I?

Try Kamillosan - recommended to me by a MW and much better than Lansinoh IMO. You have my sympathies, I almost gave up feeding dc3 due to pain, it was excruciating. It did get better after day 7 when my nipples turned to rubber.

Congratulations on the new arrival!

I don't know much about bf other than my experience, but here is what happened with my DD in case it helps:

I was experiencing pain almost at every bf as if someone was using knives to cut into the lower part of my nipple. After being told by various HVs that all was well I finally found a lactation specialist who showed me the problem. DD's chin was quite receded and although she latched on properly with the top half of her mouth, she pinched with the bottom. This is tough to describe but her top lip was properly rolled out and fleshy, but her bottom lip was sucked in and pinched.

To fix it I did what I think is called the exaggerated latch. With my index finger I would slightly push the top of the nipple until it was pointing upwards, then would guide the baby's open mouth to take the nipple but bottom lip first so that would uncurl around the nipple, before letting go with the index finger when the nipple was fully in the baby's mouth at the correct angle.

This article describes this latch: www.llli.org/llleaderweb/lv/lvfebmar04p3.html

It took me two weeks of correcting the latch for DD to learn but after 7 weeks of hell we've now had 9 months of pain free bf, so there is light at the end of the tunnel!

Brilliant, thanks for the encouragement!

After some middle of the night research I have decided to only use the heavenly nipple shields for feeds where I would otherwise be in tears - an emergency measure only as really want to have fab supply as refuse to 'top up'. I WILL make this work.

Possibly a silly question, but are you using Lansinoh before feeds or just after?

:).

I also rotated ibuprofen with the paracetomol, which meant that I always had some painkiller circulating round the clock.

I'm not an expert but it was the same for me with my DD (now 9wks), there was nothing wrong with her latch, no tongue tie, she just had a very strong suck! My nipples went black and then those black bits dropped off eventually. I have big boobs and big areolas so she couldn't take much boob into her mouth. I thought something must have been wrong because it hurt but, for me, nothing was wrong and after a few days it stopped hurting. It wouldn't hurt for the whole feed, perhaps the first 10 seconds or so. Now occasionally when she has a superlong feed (and in actual fact has probably fallen asleep on my boob with her super strong suck!), it can hurt a little bit but this is when she's on them constantly for hours, and it's nothing like that pain when I first started to breastfeed.
It sounds like you're doing fantastically well persevering.
What also helped me in general with breastfeeding when you're so knackered you're struggling to stay awake, I think how much I'd hate it if I had to walk downstairs to make up a bottle in the night; at least with breastfeeding you can stay in your warm bed and just lob your boobie out x

Just using Lansinoh after. Will start before too?
Thought I wasn't allowed ibuprofen whilst breastfeeding?
I also have big boobs, am managing to latch him by squashing them to sandwich shape, been fine without the shields today, thanks for the encouragement, just what I needed, feeling better knowing that this is pretty normal but at the black nipples!
I did so much reading on bf whilst pregnant but it's just not the same in rl! Feeling much happier and more confident today, thanks everyone!
Midwife just been, he's only lost 6% of birth weight and she says latch is great..

Your nipple's will heal while BF if the latch is right so you shouldn't need the shilds. They are not a great idea for most women as can interfear with milk supply as you have found out.

I think you should have someone check your latch again. Ring MW they should could out anytime day or night at this age. If your not happy still then one ot the BF helplines would be a good place to start.

National Breastfeeding Helpline
0300 100 0212

The Breastfeeding Network Supporterline
0300 100 0210

NCT Breastfeeding Helpline
0300 330 0771

La Leche League Helpline
0845 120 2918

Association of Breastfeeding Mothers
08444 122 949

Try reading Kellymom website to lots of great info on what to exprect in the first week's of BF.

You can tak Ibuprofen while BF just not when PG.

The BfN drugs info on pain killers www.breastfeedingnetwork.org.uk/pdfs/Analgesia_and_Breastfeeding_March_2010.pdf

By the way the BfN are a great place for drug infomation if you ever need it.

It's not normal to be in that much pain. I made the mistake of thinking that with DS1 and it fucked bf up for us completely ( I ended up expressing for 3 months in the end)

Ds1 had an undiagnosed tongue tie that was missed by 3 midwives.

I'm currently working on establishing bf with ds2 (2weeks) whose tongue tie was spotted by a specialist bf nurse and has now been snipped.

I fed him for a week using shields whilst waiting for his operation, they helped for a while but still didn't stop me losing a chunk of one nipple and developing deep cracks in the other.

If a tt is causing your latch problems then shields will not solve the problem. Agree you need to contact a bf expert through one of the organisations listed, if your mw / HV can't refer you.

I also have large boobs with flattish nipples & big aureolas, but don't listen to anyone who tells you this is the cause of the problem! It can make things slightly tricky but as you've already found, the "hamburger" or exaggerated latch can counteract that.

Keep nagging for help! And in the meantime don't overdo it - you can pump or hand express to give your nipples a break. Saturating some pads with bm and lashings of lansinoh will help heal them.

You can take 2 paracetamol every 4 hours plus 1 ibuprofen every 4-6 on top of that if you need it, according to my midwife.
Good luck

Thank you! Latch was checked today and it is good, not hurting much today either so think we've cracked it!
Hooray for ibuprofen! decent painkillers were the only thing I really missed whilst pg! (PGP from 16 weeks)
Thanks so much for the support!

Thanks grumpla he was checked for tongue tie at birth - I asked them to check as his cousins both had them. Much much less painful today, the hamburger is working well for us and I think using the shields overnight just gave that little healing window. Hoping I won't need to use them again a latch is good now so they should continue to heal.

That's not too much of a weight loss (I think anything up to 10% is expected) so you're obviously doing a brill job, well done you and your boobies :).
I used lanisoh, it's really good and really helped me. Keep going, you're doing great

Glad things are improving! Hopefully your nipples will heal nicely now - but if they don't, do have him checked again. Ds2's tongue tie was very minor but enough to cause major problems, luckily my area has an amazing bf support team so although the midwife who checked him wasn't sure whether he had one or not she referred him to the specialist anyway.

Once you have the latch sorted things improve so quickly - a week ago my poor nipples looked like they'd been through a cheese grater, they are almost 100% healed already! Apparently rapid healing is the best way of knowing whether you have a good latch or not.

Have you got a nursing pillow? I couldn't make any progress at all with biological nursing as DS sort of faceplants into the boob but then can't breathe. I was hunching terribly but made myself one of these lat night (made it a bit bigger so it goes right round the sides to support a rugby hold) and have now managed to lean back and get my feet up whilst feeding!

hope this link works I'm on my phone

Next step will be feeding whilst lying down so I don't have to come downstairs and sit on the sofa to feed

I've got a breastfeeding pillow for downstairs and just use a pillow on my lap whilst I'm feeding in bed. Certainly helps, you can just relax. Never tried feeding lying down, thankfully my DD is a sleeper at night so I haven't needed to.

Ooh, fab link, thanks! I shall make myself one of those, I have a load of fabric I bought for reupholstering an old bassinet but ended up buying an emergency Moses basket from the charity shop when DS decided to turn up early so that'll be a perfect use of it! I have a dream genii pregnancy pillow which doubles as a feeding pillow but haven't tried it yet as only just home to my own house (which was being plastered when DS made his entrance) using the sofa bolster cushions today so really comfy, not having to lean over him and only getting pain for the initial 10 seconds. Nipples feel so much better, can't believe how quick they've healed!

am glad things are better. no you dont always have to leak, but if you do its best to change pads regularly as not to cause infections etc. Well done you!!!!