Severe Breast pain 4 weeks

[8750rich]

Help! My baby is 4 weeks and I really want to stick with the breastfeeding but it's excruciating! My nipples a raw (but not cracked or bleeding) and after each feed a get a deep pain in my breasts that is so intense I want to rip them off :'(
MW and HV checked the latch and positions and everyone has said it's good. Dr gave me a course of antibiotics suspecting mastitis but it had no effect (and pain is in both sides) then gave me a course of antifungal medication for both me and baby but that also has had no effect. There are no signs of Thrush in him or on my nipples.
I'm at my wits end! I really want to continue breastfeeding but I can't cope with the pain. I'm alternating ibuprofen and paracetamol every 2 hours day and night to try to cope which can't be good for me. Am seeing the Dr again tomorrow but thought I'd see if anyone else has had anything like this?

Hi there 8750rich, so sorry to hear you're having a tough time of it at the moment.

We're moving your thread over to our Infant Feeding topic, where we hope you'll get some good support.

Ouch, sounds horrible. Haven't had anything similar but didn't want to read and run. Can you get to see a lactation consultant? They have far better training about breastfeeding than a HV or MW (or GP) and quite often pick up problems that others hadn't spotted. www.lcgb.org/find-an-ibclc/

Otherwise, are you using lansinoh on the nipples? I found nipple shields really helped me to keep going until I could get a lactation consultant in (who diagnosed and cut a tongue tie that MW/HV had said wouldn't be a problem, but which definitely was!). Shields aren't great as a long term measure but can be a lifeline as a stopgap! kellymom.com/hot-topics/sore-nipples-breasts/ may also help.

Good luck!

I felt exactly the same OP latch was good etc.

I personally found feeding painful for the first 6-8 weeks with no real reason... Then one day is disappeared. I used to have a hot water bottle across my chest to help.

Good luck and hang in there

I had exactly the same thing. It just stopped at about ten weeks... Honestly I'm not sure why.
Whether it was coincidence or not, I did buy a few better bras just beforehand. I felt much better supported and the deep breast pain lessened.

Thank you all for your support. GP has referee me to a consultant who I'm seeing on Wednesday, so will hopefully make some progress. It's just so frustrating!