Blood in milk

[warzonemummy]

I have a 16 days old baby, who is delightful in every sense except that she is killing my boobs. She latches on really well (several midwives checked and agreed that she latches on well) however, she still manages to make little cuts that bleed on my nipple. Today I was in so much pain when she was feeding so I decided to express and the whole thing turned pink as the blood got mixed with the milk. I threw it away. It is making me so sad now. I will have to formula feed the baby until I am cured now. I really need help. Can you guys tell me what I can do to cure the nipples? And what can I do to avoid this problem in future?

thanks, xx

Lamisol, all the time,definitely after every feed. Hv or gp can prescribe. Possibly nipple shields,boots sell them.one day it will all fall into place painfree.I've been therex

If your baby is causing cracks to appear in your nipple, regardless of what it looks like from the outside of her mouth, something isn't quite right on the inside of it.

What shape.colour is your nipple when your DD finishes a feed? Is it nipple shaped but just a bit longer, pink, white, blue/purple, squashed, lipstick/bullet shaped, wedge shaped, is there a ridge running from the base of the nipple and over the top to the other side?

You can feed baby with pink milk, it's not going to harm her and if you leave the pink milk for a little while the blood should settle to the bottom and you can 'pour the top off' if you wish - details here so when you express again you can leave it to settle for a bit before giving it so her. Also try turning down the suction on the pump to avoid opening up the wounds or trying hand expressing which is much more gentle than pumping. Moist wound healing dressings may also heal you as they help skin heal without forming scabs (scabs can get pulled off by bfing/pumping leaving a bigger wound) and it heals twice as fast as air dried skin.

Are you in contact with any bfing support aside from the MWs? You could call one of the breastfeeding helplines for support right now or there may well be a group local to you (though obv. not at this time of night!) that you could go to in the next few days.

Tahnk you for the responses. I plan to go and see the breastfeeding clinic tomorrow.

My nipple is shaped like a lipstick when it comes out so one side is more squashed than the other side. I wonder if that means there is something wrong.

I gave her formula just now :( because I threw away all of the expressed pink milk.

It's very possible that your Dd has a posterior tongue tie which is really hard to spot, even by BFCs. Have a look at the Milk Matters breastfeeding clinic, they can help you find an expert in your area.

In the meantime google 'exaggerated latch' or flipple which is a way of latching that will get your nipple further back in her mouth and hopefully stop the damage.

Finally, the best way I found to heal nipple trauma is to get some breast shells (not shields) and wear them between every feed to get air to the nipples. Also get hold of some anti bacterial cream just in case, it's really easy for an infection to get in there.

Aww I hope you get it sorted soon, it's such a hard time anyway.