Pain in one breast when feeding! Help!

[Blimeygirl]

My DS is 8 days old and seems to be doing well. The only problem is feeding on my right breast. It is so very painful and I can't figure out how to fix it. It is an absolute dream in my left with no pain. I've tried a cradle hold and a rugby hold and neither seem any different pain wise. He is having plenty of wet and dirty nappies and at last weighing had only lost 3% of his birth weight (he's being re weighed on Wednesday). He is also being assessed on Monday for tongue tie as we haven't seen his tongue stick out. I'm beginning to dread feeds on that side.

Can anyone offer any tips or ideas to help? Thank you!

Does it seem painful to him to move his head to latch on that side? Does his mouth seem to open as much as the other side? Consider cranial osteopathy, it was the only thing that made dc1 feed on both sides.

It's a deeper pain in my breast but have no signs of mastitis or thrush so I don't think it's that, obviously could be wrong. It doesn't seem to hurt him moving his head to latch. I think it is his latch as he sort of rolls my nipple in and out if he's not quite on properly if that makes sense? But that doesn't mean I know how to fix it!

I don't know about the latch (but would that give a deeper breast pain?),but try just gently but firmly massaging the breast as he's feeding and check for any slight lumps and if so, ease them out with massage. I had hell on earth with mastitis first time around, not at all the second time doing that with every feed.

Ok I was wrong about the pain as I just latched him on and it is pain in my nipple rather than the breast. They aren't cracked or anything just sore!

You might not think it's thrush but it still might be - I had thrush in my left boob for ages without realising that's what it was because it didn't present as I expected it to. I did have a recurrent bleb as well, I thought that was the problem - but 2 days of using Daktarin gel and it was fixed completely. If only I'd gone to the GP earlier! I only mentioned it in passing along with a bunch of other minor niggles.

However, your baby is too young for the Daktarin gel (I think it's 3 or 6m +) so you might need to find a better way to deal with it, but I would at least speak to the GP or HV about it.

Ok well I'll see what the tongue tie clinic say on Monday and then will ask the midwife on Wednesday. Just need to make it through until then.

So he did have a tongue tie which has now been snipped! But now has to re learn how to latch on properly which is what was causing the nipple pain. It's a learning process for both of us at the moment. Thank you for all your suggestions and help!

Glad they did the tongue tie for you, Blimey, it can be difficult to find someone to do that these days so lucky you and your baby! Hope it all improves from now on (but if you still get that pain, do go and get checked by your GP for thrush, just in case).