cracked nipples won't heal - close to giving up :(

[TremoloGreen]

I have had cracked nipples since my DD was born and she's now 8 weeks. The cracks were initially caused by tongue tie, she was snipped at 5 weeks but it took another week or two to totally sort out the latching issues. Now my nipples are no longer being compressed but the deep cracks won't heal. I've been resting one side for just over a week now and expressing from that side by hand. Neither side is showing improvement though I've tried milk, lansinoh, jelonet, as much exposure to air as possible.

I went to the GP and the cracks were swabbed for thrush and bacteria, but negative. She prescribed daktarin which I tried anyway for a few days but it burned and I didn't see any improvement. I'm getting quite depressed and desperate now. The GP was quite rude and patronising and basically said I should give up breastfeeding :-( Has anyone got any tips from their experience?

Multi mam patches and balm worked for me for a couple if weeks. But I found jelonet and Vaseline was my best combination to keep nipples moist.

I was allergic to lanolin but took a while to work out that lansinoh was making it worse!

I had tongue tie issues for a long time due to reattachment. I would get your little one checked for reattachment in case some damage is still being caused. We had reattachment 3 times.

Multimam are miracle nip healers, jelonet and Lansinoh also good but ask for a repeat swab- mine turned out to be a staph infection, antibiotics had em healing in days. Also saline nipple soaks before and after each feed may help

Op, in my (limited) experience, cracks will heal if the latch is good. There may still be some rubbing/compression happening?

My DS had tongue tie snipped at 8 weeks and took about 8 weeks for latch to improve and cracks are only just healed now (20 weeks). Like ladycurd I also had staph infections and antibiotics helped massively.

It sounds like you're doing all the right things re lansinoh and jelonet but for me, wet wound healing worked better than exposing to the air (ie lots of lansinoh, keep covered up and don't expose to air).
Cranial osteopathy really helped us too, this may further improve the latch.

You've done so well to get so far, I know how hellish it is but it will get better with time. Good luck

I don't think I have latching issues, I'm not seeing any signs of compression any more and the actual feeding is pain-free. In any case, neither side is healing, including the one I'm not feeding from (only hand expressing).

We've had the tongue tie checked twice now for re-sealing and it's fine. She does occasionally forget to use the tongue properly but I take her straight off and do the under tongue massage (grim ) and then she gets on fine.

Thanks for the tips anyway, maybe I'll try some multimam compresses. I'm also seeing the GP tomorrow for my postnatal check up so I'll ask to be swabbed again.