Agonizingly painful latch and cracked and bleeding nipples on one side

[Slh122]

DS is 7 weeks old and has been EBF from day 1 with no issues. Over the last week or so it's been increasingly painful when he latches on my left side for no reason. Over the last 2 days my nipple has become so sore and cracked and is bleeding. My right side is fine, he seems to latch on fine. He latches on exactly the same on both sides so I don't understand.
I'm dreading every feed because it hurts that much. Lansinoh isn't helping that much. I'm almost in tears when he latches on. What's causing it? Is it a bad latch?

i am not sure what the problem could be but have you tried a nipple shield to protect your nipples temporarily.
contact your local surestart centre or your midwife as there maybe a breastfeeding clinic with lactation consultants. (genuine qualification coz i wasn't sure) who can assess your feeding and help with problems.
has it always been painful? my dd is 6 weeks and had a tounge tie which meant bf was agonising! not all areas diagnose it so worth asking at a clinic.
please don't just soldier on in pain! as that will not be good for either of you

No I haven't I'll get hold of one tomorrow. There's a baby clinic run by the HV on Thursdays so I'll go there tomorrow and see if someone can help me. It's not so bad once the feed gets going if you know what I mean, it's just the latching and first few sucks that makes me want to chop my boob off. And he's got bloody sharp fingernails and waves them around when he's finished feeding before I've had chance to do my bra back up so he catches it and makes it worse :(

Hope you get help from the clinic. Ask them to check for tongue tie and look into the possibility of it being thrush.

If it's just one side, maybe it's an inverted nipple on that side, just slightly? I had to use a nipple shield on one side to start with, then it got easier, although once DC1 was older and down to one or two feeds a day I abandoned the inverted side.

With DC2 I gave up on the bad side altogether from day two or three (it's possible just to feed from one side if you need to do that).

Medela nipple shields are brilliant and even come in differing sizes.

Good luck. x