Nipple pain/damage with bf a five month old

[Squeakyheart]

DD has never had a really good latch at least not one that looks like the pictures! But she was gaining weight and feeding was ok after a few tough weeks. There have always been periods when nipples have been sore when she has been feeding a lot or pulling a lot but recently it has got worse almost like the first week on occasion.

I mentioned this to my DM whose response was wean her ASAP or she will damage your nipples, now I took this with a pinch of salt till yesterday when I noticed that one of my nipples is a different shape and responds differently to changes in temp.

I am going to go to a breast feeding support group next week but wondered if any of you had any advice or reassurance to offer, thanks

Is the nipple squashed to a lipstick shape with a white line when she's finished?

Sounds like what I had with DD's tongue tie. I found the same thing with temperature. It was suggested, wrongly, that it might be Raynaud's phenomenon of the nipple because of the temperature reaction, but it was actually vasospasm due to damage to the nipple.

Oh, and DD gained weight over her percentile by taking sugary foremilk very frequently.

The nipple was like that when we first started but have got past that, it's now that there is less of a clear delineation between the nipple and areola. DM has now said that the pulling away is her saying she wants to wean!

I think your DM is talking nonsense

Not sure what you mean about the less clear delineation - can you explain a bit more?

I will try! The areola on one side is flatter with the nipple standing proud from it the other side the areola is pointier so the angle between it and the nipple is less therefore less obvious, thanks for helping with this and sorry took so long to reply.

Hmmm, not sure I can visualise what you mean. Do you mean the nipple sort of bends over?

Have you been to the BF support group yet? Hopefully you'll be able to get advice for improving latch and somebody competent to check for tongue tie in case it is that.

The lipstick shaped nipple is a sign of tt and the fact that it isn't happening anymore doesn't necessarily mean there isn't a tie (it stopped with DD after a while but her continued short, frequent feeds and green poos were a probably a sign that the tt was still a problem).

It's highly unlikely a five-month-old wants to wean, and it sounds like you've had to persevere and done brilliantly, so if you enjoy BF (apart from the pain) be persistent in asking for help until the problem is sorted out.

I'd be interested to know what happens, so do update if you can