Hi All,
Really hoping for some advice. My beautiful baby is four weeks old tomorrow. She had a little trouble feeding in the first week due to a tongue tie (but managed not to loose much weight). Then we had a few days of cushy, easy, lovely, delightful BFing after it was dealt with - the blisters on my nipples completely healed and it didn't hurt at all.
Since then I have had an extraordinary painful time particularly when she first latches on and for the first couple of minutes of the feed, this started on one side but after about a week it was effecting both breasts. I thought this might be overactive letdown (I seem to have masses of milk, baby often pulls off the breast for a little break, she's gaining weight at a rate of knots and throws up a lot after and sometimes during feeds.) Towards the end of the feed she also often clamps down very hard, pulls back her head and/or twists it side to side basically worrying my nipple. It's excruciating and harder to cope with than the pain I feel generally which takes my breathe away but at least expect it. It might sound ridiculous but I genuinely catch myself wondering if I will still have a nipple attached at the end of the feed when she bites hard and they look like livid pink pineapples when she finally lets go.
I rang a helpline when this started and the consultant suggested that baby was biting to bring in more milk. She recommended massaging my breasts when I felt she was getting fussy but I can't seem to tell when it will happen. I spoke to a lactation consultant who said the more constant pain might be thrush. A pediatrition I saw previously had ruled this out but then a GP examined baby and said she had a mild case of it. Baby is now taking lurid coloured drops and I am daubing vinegar on my nips after feeds, letting them air dry and coating them in Daktarin and laundering everything in sight at 60 degrees. The midwife came today and seemed to think the pain I was experience wasn't normal, she reiterated that babies thrush was very mild (I'm not sure if this implied that the thrush perhaps couldn't account for it either) and she also suggested just feeding from one breast (alternating) at each feed to try to control any over supply.
Sorry for the epic saga, I suppose I both wanted to vent and also to ask ... if any one has any ideas about what the hell is going on and what I can do or who I can see to help?
Also possibly relevant today I have noticed a kind of red circle around each of my areola - not the streaks I was told to look out for that might indicate mastitis. Possibly this is from the biting?
Baby is also very windy and crampy - perhaps from overfeeding or the thrush or a recent course of antibiotics I was on - and so she constantly wants to nurse. And I want to comfort her whenever she needs but I'm starting to wonder if its not just making things worse for both of us.