Cracked nipple

[MollyDefoe]

Ouch! I have a very painful crack on my right nipple that makes feeding from that side excruciating. Any tips for how to get it to heal quickly? It begins to heal between feeds, and then gets opened up each time I bf. DD (7 wo) and I have had a pretty tough start to bf: I have inverted nipples so to begin with she'd only latch on with nipple shields. I got mastitis when she was 2wo, which caused my left breast to basically shut down milk production. This means that I feed her every feed from the right breast, so it's working overtime, contributing to the cracked nipple problem. Her latch isnt brilliant - she was tongue-tied, which was snipped about 2 weeks ago, which has improved things immensely but there's still a way to go. In the last week I've started weaning her off nipple shields, but even with them the cracked nipple is very very sore. I put on tons of lansinoh, but there still isn't time for the nipple to heal between feeds. Expressing reopens the wound too. I'm feeling pretty down about this: bf has been such a struggle from day 1, and I don't really know what to do about the pain, seeing as I've only got one breast that works properly (other than taking tons of painkillers). I'd be really grateful if anyone's got advice about how to help the crack heal...

Wow sounds like you've been through alot, well done you for sticking with it. Have you tried letting air get to it?also it may be worth getting someone to look at your latch, I thought I had s decent latch until the midwife looked and told me some things to do to make it even better.

you could try relactation: Kellymom article

the link gives you a guide as to how and lots of other info along the way, including some about expressing.

when you had mastitis, did you stop feeding from the affected breast?

Lansinoh is the most effective topical treatment I found.

congratulations on your baby and on keeping going despite the pain.

Molly, I have had a very similar experience to you. My dd is almost 8 weeks and I have been plagued by painful nipples since day 1. I have fed on front of anyone who is prepared to watch so as to check my positioning and latch!!! All midwives and nct bf counsellor say it's fine and through a process of eliminating all other outcomes we have come to the conclusion that I have very sensitive nipples and unfortunately bf will always be painful for me (although nowhere near as bad as first week-with bleeding and stopping feeding on one side like you).

I found the lansinoh helpful (but read something the other day about making sure not to use too much as this can affect lo's latch and cause them to move around a lot when feeding). The other thing I use in conjunction with it is hydrogel pads (medela and tommee tipper make them). I wear these all the time now as tried a week without them and my nipples were in such adds again just from rubbing on breast pads! My hv has recently advised that I can get these on prescription so maybe buy some and see if they work for you and then try seeing your gp-they are pretty expensive.

Good luck

oh, poor thing. the pain is excruciating, as you say. :( xx

my nipple cracked with dd1. i used a nipple shield for every feed (couldn't bear without) and it really, really helped as a physical barrier between dd1's mouth and the nipple. Between feeds i kept my breast out as much as possible to get air, rubbed expressed milk into nipple and applied lansinoh cream. I was eventually able to leave off the nipple shield when it was nearly healed and I only experienced pain in the initial seconds of feeding. Was I happy when it all healed up!!

hugs x

I'm really sorry, i missed that you've used nipple shields and are weaning her off them. i hope you get some help on here.

Difficult to answer really, but just to say that I had a similar problem for dd's first 10 weeks, and after that it got better. I think it was just that her mouth got bigger and she got the hang of latching well. Also, has anyone looked at it to make sure there's no infection or anything? I didn't get help in those early weeks, but when dd bit me at 7 months (!) and it wasn't healing I went to the GP and they prescribed antibiotics which cleared it up really fast. If there's redness or oozing I'd definitely get it looked at. Loads of sympathy, the pain is just dreadful isn't it - I can remember counting through the first few minutes with toes curled.

a friend of mine took paracetamol and ibuprofen, alternating between the two every two hours, if that makes sense? ie takes paracetamol, after two hours ibuprofen, after two hours paracetamol and so on. she was told they were on different pathways in the body so this is ok. she found this immensely helpful for the pain.

she was told they work* on differnet pathways

Thank you so much for your advice! I'd never heard of hydrogel pads - I'm going to the GP anyway on Monday, so I'll try and persuade them to prescribe some for me. Thank you so much for this info!

DD and I have had a slightly better 24 hours. If i "dangle feed", then the pain is much more manageable - I think it allows me to position the nipple in her mouth in a way that avoids the crack. We've had a gazillion guests this weekend, though, and dangle feeding is not exactly easy to do in public! I do agree with the comment that some people just have very sensitive nipples. I'm wondering if the fact that mine are flat/inverted means that, when they're pulled out by DD's suck, they're particularly sensitive, not being used to being out in the open, as it were! The ironic thing is that I've been trying to wean DD off nipple shields for about the last month. Finally it seems to have worked - she'll latch on pretty happily without them. But now I really want to use my nipple shield again on the right side to help with the pain...and she won't feed with it on! She just bursts into tears, and cries until I take it off!

Thank you so much for taking the time to give me advice, and to share your experiences - I'm definitely going to give the ibuprofen/paracetamol combo a go, and the hydrogel pads too!

I would agree re:inverted nipples being more sensitive as although both of mine are sensitive the left one is inverted and is much more sensitive and prone to cracks than the right. I just keep hoping my dd hasn't inherited my rubbish nipples!!! :)

Also meant to say tell your gp that the pads are for moist wound healing. I got the 10x10 pads and cut them in to 2 triangles so I can use 1 pad for both boobs as they only last 24 hrs.