5 day old - my nipples hurt sooo much!

[seven201]

I have a gorgeous 5 day year old daughter. She's wonderful . I am producing milk and I think she's getting a lot. At hospital I was told she was latching well and i had the positioning right etc. I have small nipples and breasts, not sure if that affects things or not. I feel like she is sucking fire from my nipples, especially for the first 15 seconds or so! It's enough that I scrunch up my face in pain or swear quietly. I have got some nipple shields (been using for 2 days now) and I think they're helping a tiny bit. The midwife at hospital said I might just have very sensitive nipples. No-one (that I know of) checked her for tongue tie but that wouldn't affect nipples would it? Her gum line is quite sharp looking ie you can see a bit of white where her teeth are not far under the surface but maybe all newborns have mouths like that?

Anyone else have a similar thing? Will it get better with time? I don't think I could keep this up for months but can do it for a while longer. Im not against formula feeding at all but if I can breast feed then I'd love to persevere. I'm using plenty of lanolin btw.

TIA X

Also, sorry I have another question... Am I meant to massage my boobs or anything to look after them? They're quite rock solid now!

I had the same with both my babies. I used nipple shields for a few days and it helped a lot. For me I think I just got sore from the amount of friction from feeding. It did get better over the first few weeks. I just went back to the shields if soreness started again.
The milk supply also gradually settles down so the hardness gets better. It takes a little while though.
Congratulations on the arrival of your baby.

Congratulations! All sounds wonderful...except the pain! Get some lansinoh and apply liberally after feeding. It's fine for dd to ingest but I would wipe any obvious amounts off before feeding again. It was a godsend for me. Good luck!

Hello, I have a 7 week old, this was exactly the same for me for the first two weeks. I also have small nipples (but massive boobs, another issue!), she definitely wasn't latching well, just on the nipple, and it was bloody agonising. Got bleeding, cracks, etc.
BUT... now we are really ok. She is still not the best with the latch but that fear of feeding really left me after the first two weeks, as it seems a combination of her mouth getting a bit bigger, I found positions which helped, and my nipples toughened up too.
We couldn't do proper laid-back feeding as her face got lost in my boobs, but the following helped me:

• WAIT until the mouth is open really wide, then pinch your areole like a sandwich and just quickly pull the baby towards you
• then lean back until she is feeding downwards onto the boob, not sideways. You can support her if you bring your knees up; keep her up high, just under your boobs
• try the "flipple"/ "exaggerated latch" where you stuff boob in while also using finger to make sure the top lip is not tucked in.
• lots and lots of

Good luck, I did not believe I could cope with weeks of it but it did get better little by little. Didn't need nipple shields at all (had them with my first and it took us 16 weeks to get off them).

The pain will get better as your breasts get used to it. I remember experiencing this with both my dds. It is just such a change of activity for your nipples!

I also had this both times. I think the first few seconds thing is pain on let down, mine was toe curling first time round I used to bite down on my tongue or lip to get through it! It really will get better with time, it's just a matter of doing what you can til it disappears! I used nipple shields but only when I absolutely couldn't stand it, not every feed, put Lansinoh on after every feed, feed baby at first sign of hunger as with my first I tried to distract her first as I was dreading the pain but with 2nd found it was actually not as bad the more frequent the feeds were! I also had some avent gel pads that you can either freeze or warm up to soothe pain in between feeds.

Oh wow this is all very promising! Thank you so much everyone. I will persevere and next feed will try stuffing more into her mouth! I'm glad it sounds like something that will improve . Thanks again!

Hi there,

Sounds like you're doing really well. Lots of women find it can hurt a little whilst they work on latch and positioning. But it shouldn't hurt too much. Nipple pain can be a sign of tongue tie or thrush. Are there any BF drop ins at your children's centre? There should be someone trained in your area to assess for tongue tie. BF drop ins can support with latch and positioning too.

It is tough in the beginning but totally worth it. Key for me was seeking support in the early days. Good luck xxx

Generally if it hurts at the start of the feed and then eases it is just a bit of toughening up for the nipples that's needed. Try to keep going op, it will ease.

My nipples were very sore for the first 3 weeks and then they toughen up. We had no latch problems. My godsends were multiMAM compressed. I'd slap one on each nipple after a feed and leave them there til the next feed. Keep them in the fridge and they are lovely and cooling. The other thing thay worked for me this time was to take ibuprofen during the day and before cluster feeding at night. Really helped.

Sorry that should say multimam compresses!

It does get better - the first two weeks are the hardest and then all of a sudden it's as if your body gets used to it. Stick with it if you can

Awful... I remember this ... They do toughen up. With my first DD- one nipple was a bit more painful than the other and just kept bleeding. I remember I expressed that one for 24 hours instead of the baby feeding off it- gave it a rest and it did help. Good luck OP!

It might be worth getting her checked for tongue tie, I had very sore nipples and when I got my DS checked it was found he had TT and once it was cut feeding became so much better.

The rock hard boobs - that's engorgement, or your milk REALLY coming in. Happened at about day 4 for me. I found that it got easier to get a good latch afterwards, but my let down was SUPER PAINFUL at first, until my body settled.

If your nipples hurt, keep watching videos and looking at advice about a good latch, don't just assume it's okay. I found that my baby couldn't tilt his head back, so the rugby ball hold really helped!

I got the same thing every time DS started feeding. Nothing wrong with my nipples (no soreness afterwards, no blood, nothing), the first minute of feeding was just painful. In fact excruciating, but just for those first moments. I think it was just how strong the milk came out. :)

It got better after a few weeks and breastfeeding was really easy otherwise.

But, if your breasts do feel too full and it may make it difficult for her to latch properly, you can try a warm shower and massage the breasts towards the nipples to empty them a bit.

Ibuprofen and paracetamol helped ease my pain so I was able to breastfeed longer and get boobs soft.

Thanks everyone. I had a good feel in the shower earlier and my right boob is so solid and I couldn't get her to latch on earlier as my nipple is just too small and I couldn't get it in as I couldn't squish it at all. Popped a shield on and it worked. Hopefully when it softens up a bit we can try and go shieldless. I will try heat and and massage to help. There is a breastfeeding drop in session with lactation consultant on a Thursday near me so I'll go then if things haven't improved. Thanks again everyone, you've been so helpful. Xxx

At day 5 with DD1 feeding was agony and it turned out she couldn't latch well as I was so engorged. I expressed a bit of milk off before the feed and that helped immensely. I do agree that the nipples do have to toughen up as well though.