Owwww it hurts :(

[jimblejambles]

Dc3 is 3 days old and has ruined my nipples. What can I do to stop the pain and carry on feeding her? One is blistered and bloody the other just feels like it could drop off at any second. I think the latch is wrong and my midwife is coming tomorrow to help but in the mean time I don't want to rely on formula.
I have lansinoh and breast pads and a very low pain threshold. Please help

Take some Paracetamol.
Make sure her mouth is wide open before you try to latch, chin is against your breast. I drag nipple over top lip to ensure its in the top if DSs mouth.
Also try the ABM helpline, manned by trained mums who can help

Ouch!

Firstly congratulations on your LO & good for you for bf.

Yes the latch is wrong - sounds like he's not taking in enough of the areola into his mouth. When you bring him to your boob, try bringing him from slightly underneath so that he takes in more of the areola from below your nipple. Stroke his chin to encourage him to open his mouth wider too.

Is he a low birth weight baby? I only ask as mine was & it did take a while before she was big enough to take in enough boob.

Ask your MW to refer you to a bf counsellor & also ask if there are any bf support groups in the area - both of these were an absolute life saver for me. Ill see if I can find you some helpful links too

this may help

Oh & use lansinoh religiously & after each feeding session rub a little BM into your nipples & let them air dry.

It does get easier, I promise!

Sorry, misread your post, I thought you said DS but you have a dd, please swap the him in my reply for a her!

It gets a lot easier but unfortunately you need to keep feeding through the pain, which can be toe curling.

Get her latch right and the pain will soon pass. I had 4/5 weeks of pain with DS1 and one week with DS2 but then no discomfort at all and I could enjoy the loveliness of BFing.

If you're able to carry on it's so worthwhile but if not you've still done an excellent job.

Not much to add to what the others have said, but huge sympathy, I remember it well (I still have the scar from one particularly bad crack). You could try nipple shields but I found that made it harder for DS to get enough nipple in his mouth. Ask your midwife for Jelonet - patches of gauze soaked in an ointment a bit like lansinoh that you put over your nipples between feeds.

And it will get better. I promise. You're doing fab. Have some with a few and some

Oh yeah - Jelonet - that is miracle stuff. Good call. OP you should ask for that ASAP.

Everyone else has given the advice I would. I just wanted to say well done for sticking at it. It isn't easy, especially at this stage. I reckon it took me 2 weeks to think I'd got the hang of it and even then it was tricky. If you keep at it, it will get easier. A month in, it will be coming naturally and you'll be glad you did.
If you need to give your body a break before the midwife can get to you, you could try expressing and using a bottle or pipette to feed baby. Don't worry about breast/bottle confusion, in your circumstance, a night for the nipples to recover wont hurt.
The best bit of Mummy advice I was given was to be kind to yourself, so do whatever you need, not just what baby needs. Good luck.

Nurofen before you feed.

When baby latches on count backwards from 10. When you get to one it will have stopped hurting so much.

Get some RL advice.

Use loads of lansinoh or similar. I always found the worst pain was when dry scabbed cracks reopened.

You are doing fantastically, and it will get easier. If you want to do this, you can :-)

What they all said ^^ I was lucky this time that I had no blood or blistering but yes it was bloody painful! I did do some cup feeding for the first 4 or so days.

It does get better ds4 is 14 weeks now and it's all fine but there were some times when I just wanted to scream and could have quite happily bitten anyone who bounced around on the sofa while I was feeding

All the above, especially the Lanisinoh advice. Plus, try changing positions as your nipple may hurt less if your baby latches on at a different angle. I found lying down side by side with the baby so much easier. Try also the rugby hold. Google breastfeeding images to see exactly what a good latch is. I promise it does get better, I honestly didn't think I'd get past the first week but I'm still going 6 months later. But equally, if you decide it's not for you DO NOT beat yourself up over it. I hope it goes better soon.

Thank you all so much

Use the lansinoh like a lip balm after every feed. Get some cloth breast pads they are sooooo much better for sore nipples I speak from ouchy experience!

How are you getting on OP?

I absolutely, literally have felt your pain! With DS1 when we first started bf my nipples looked like they'd had a bad arguement with a cheese grater & lost! I literally cried at the thought of having to feed him. Try the rugby hold as when they're so little & floppy I found this gave much better control over their head to latch on. Also try & draw your nipples out a bit before latching. As well as the lansinoh leave your nipples open to the air after feeding & just put a muslin cloth over them to stop clothing rubbing & irritating more. Also medela contact nipple sheilds were an absolute god send for us. They are really fine silicone & designed to give mum & baby as much contact as possible without you being ripped to pieces. Can be purchased from places like boots, mothercare & I think some larger supermarkets have them. We used these so that I had time to heal, they helped while we learnt to latch well & helped through a very painful time. We went on to feed without them successfully so don't worry that you'll always need them, they're a short term solution. Also try & go to any local support groups, speaking to others really does help! It may not feel line it now but it does get easier, you're doing a fantastic job!

Cloth breast pads and put them in ybr freezer between feeds....someone recommended savlon to heal nips between feeds, just wash off before feeding!

Get onto youtube and look at breastfeeding videos to get your latch right! It will get easier once your nipples have toughened. ..took me about a week, , just wish my latch had been right.

Also get baby checked for tongue tie by the MW.

Nipple shields are the only way I've managed to bf my 3 children to begin with. All three times I've had cracks, blisters etc and had to go through the awful pain stage that you are experiencing. I've found the shields mean its bearable for the early days/weeks and then I can stop using them once my nipples have hardened a bit and baby gets a bit bigger. Good luck!

I was you a month ago! Ugh, it's so horrible, especially in middle of night.

Things I found helped:

• Lots of pro support. In my borough they have bf counsellors who come out to you, anything like that in your area? Or go to a bf drop-in.
• changing position from cradle to rugby. Not sure why that helped, perhaps gravity helped my lo open her quite small mouth wider.
• Lansinoh. Slather on liberally, also put a bit on breast pad to stop scabs sticking. I found wet healing like this more effective than the standard dry healing advice. Although I did spend nearly a week with my noobs hanging out as it hurt to have anything touching them.
• Bloody determination!

Good luck, it WILL get better - I was surprised how quickly my nips healed once the latch improved. And now, at 5 wks, I have no pain (other than the recurring mastitis, but that's a different issue)