Reynauds phenomenon can cause dreadful pain while bfing - anyone been told about it?

[JW37]

I had to stop bfing with ds1 after a few weeks because of awful pain which every bfing counsellor I saw couldn't help with. This time with ds2 someone mentioned reynauds phenomenon which is blanching of the extremities usually the hands but it can also affects the nipples. Mine go white at the ends or purple, the pain lasts for ages after feeding and they sting like crazy in the cold. My mum also gets it in her hands. I've now just finished a 2 week course of a calcium channel blocker and it is so much better so if anyone is struggling desperately and it's not poor latch, tongue tie, thrush etc ask health visitor about reynauds.

I have this, in winter you can frequent find me with both boobs dipped in a sink of hot water to get the blood supply back up and stop the excruciating pain!

It hasn't affected my bf yet but thank you I shall know why if I have issues during the winter now, I hadn't even thought about it!

This is really interesting thanks JW. I gave up BF quite early because of terrible pain that I could only explain by my nipples being too big for my rather small baby (my nipples are uncommonly large!) Blush! But I have always suffered with the cold and a lot of people have asked me in the past if I suffer from Reynauds. I also found my nipples went white at the ends when BF. A BF councillor did mention it but I kind of dismissed it but maybe I should revisit it as I'm considering trying to restart BF again (baby only 5 weeks).

Interesting.. I got told I might have this today by a breastfeeding counsellor. I also have cracked and bleeding nipples though so I need to get those healed before we assess! The joy of breastfeeding !!

Was never told about it, but definitely suffered from it! Hot water bottles on the nipples after every feed!

I had this! Every time I went out in the cold I suffered with terrible nipple pain. I asked my BF counsellor at my LLL meeting and she said it's a kind of cramp that can be solved with magnesium supplements (just as a runner would do to help with leg cramps!).

Oh, magnesium will help??? I will get some in that case. Thanks!

No way!!! I have this and the pain you're describing in my nips ( especially in the cold! Makes me cry - the worst pain ever) I never knew the two were related!! You learn something new every day!

I thought the going white at the ends was normal.... Doh!

I have it and breastfeeding was horrifically painfull which lead to me stopping and then for the second only planning on the first three days for the liquid gold.

According to my LLL group leader magnesium should help. She didn't know the answer herself but did a bit of research and asking around....I bought some supplements but didn't need to use them as it suddenly just stopped so I can't vouch for it personally. I used to put one of those bean bags you heat in the microwave on my boobs to ease the pain. Not very practical when you want to do your shopping though!

I had this with all 3 dcs (also know as nipple vasospasm). The pain was like someone running a hacksaw blade across my nipples, and it would continue throughout the feed, with pain in my nipples in between as well, I couldn't stand in the shower because of the water hit my boobs it made me want to pass out. With dd1 it wasn't helped by her having a tongue tie, and me getting some awful advice at the beginning. I had the best experience with ds, he was in scbu and I expressed feeds at first to go into his feeding tube, and then gradually tried to get him to feed, he had very little suck, so maybe that helped with pain to the nipple, but I was also on morphine and I really noticed the pain when I stopped taking morphine, and ds became a more efficient feeder. I would sit and sweat and shake throughout the feed because it hurt so much. I still didn't last longer than 10 weeks though.