Baby has bitten hole in my breast

[juneau]

Just that really. DS2, aged 12 months, bit me on Friday. I don't think he meant to - he's getting all four of his pre-molars and he's just generally chewing on anything and everything - but I'm now rather concerned. I was hoping the hole (and it is a gash - albeit a small one), would heal up quickly, but it hasn't. It's actually getting more sore and it's not healing. Has anyone got any advice?

I can't just wean him, even though he's 12 months old, because he's still feeding 4x per day and I'd get horribly engorged if I just stopped feeding him (to say nothing of his distress). I suppose what I'm looking for is some magic way to heal a wound that's right next to my nipple, while still continuing to feed. I'm going to drop one of the feeds tomorrow to try and minimise trauma to the nipple. Any ideas?

Have you tried Lansinoh ointment? It's expensive but I had bleeding nipples from baby's tongue tie and it seemed to help healing.

Moist wound healing dressings are a great way to heal nipples - it helps the wound heal without scabbing (scabs form then get sucked off which causes a slightly larger wound, if this scabs over and then gets sucked off....) and has been shown to heal wounds twice as fast as air healing. You can get these dressings from a pharmacy (one brand name is Jelonet but I don't know any other brand names - sorry!).

In the meantime you can put something like Lansinoh or other nipple cream on to minimise the air getting to the wound.

If there is an 'off' smell coming from the wound, you have a fever or malaise or any non-milk discharge from the wound getting it looked at by the GP/Practise Nurse would be a good idea as it might have got infected. If in doubt get it checked out.

Thanks for the answers. I don't have any Lansinoh or any gel plasters, but I'll go and get some tomorrow. In the meantime I've been squeezing some BM onto the wound as I believe it's got healing properties of it's own, and I've put an airtight kids plaster on top to keep it moist and clean. I'm still struggling with the idea that I've BF for nearly three years at this point and I've encountered something that has me stumped!

Lanisoh and Breastmilk helped me when DS did the same. If you can bare the pain I honestly don't think you need to wean. Mine took about 2 weeks to heal (I think most things do) and it did seem to hurt worse before it got better. Best of luck!

That's good to know! I can just about bear the pain (lots of teeth gritting when he latches on and silent swearing). I really don't want to let this defeat me!

I found lip salve helped when this happened.

I may be barking up completely the wrong tree, and expect someone to tell me it's a bad idea, but could you try a nipple shield while it heals? He can still feed through it, but it may protect the wound from any further tooth-related damage in the meantime?

Hope you heal soon.

I'd go to the GP and check it's not infected - the not healing sounds suspicious. I had this when dd got her first teeth at 7 months and antibiotics sorted it out (symptoms were just as you describe). GP said baby bite wounds often got infected from bacteria on the teeth.

Tbh it sounds as though the bite wound might be infected. Have you applied anything like tea tree oil or antiseptic to it?

I haven't put any antiseptic on, but I think you're right. I'll do it now. Thanks again.

I've not tried them yet, but I had open cuts with DS1 and have been asking round for advice on how to protect myself when DS2 arrives - I've been suggested to get these and I'm game to give anything a go! Let me know if you try them and they do the trick. The MNetter who suggested it to me said she had a cut that didn't heal for 16 weeks, used them and it cleared up in around 48 hours. As I say though, it's second hand advice from me... there are threads on here about them though if you do a thread search?