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Infant feeding

Get advice and support with infant feeding from other users here.

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Original poster

My GP says "just stop breastfeeding"

43 replies

LifeGotInTheWay · 10/08/2016 11:03

DC is five months, EBF. After feeding, one side is desperately painful so bad I sometimes can't speak through it and I catch my breath, this continues for around 3 hours after a feed. Feeding on the other side is lovely, wonderful, textbook.

Have had extensive prolonged treatment for thrush as it isn't comfortable at latch and the pain is deep and burning afterwards, so does sound like thrush. But, the treatment isn't working. GP says there is no further treatment available and nowhere to refer me. They don't know what it is and the only answer is to stop feeding.

I have fed through this excruciating pain for nearly four months now, and don't want to stop feeding as the other side is perfect and there is clearly just something that needs to be fixed on the bad side, but it seems no one can diagnose what is wrong.

Do any of you wise ones have any clue what could be causing such terrible pain after feeding, on only one side, for such a long time? Any experience of thrush treatment not working? And could I have thrush exclusively on one side for this long?

And lastly, has anyone fed post 6 months from just one side? Did you produce enough milk?

I am desperate but don't want to stop feeding for quite a few reasons.

Thanks all!

OP posts:

chipmonkey · 10/08/2016 20:16

You've probably tried this but in case you haven't... have you tried positioning the baby in a football hold so that he/she is in the same position for the "bad" breast as for the "good" one? Could be it's baby's latch is off in a way that only affects one breast.

amysmummy12345 · 10/08/2016 20:18

I had this!!!! Look up nipple blanching and reynauds syndrome in nipples, it only improved with time I'm afraid, dd had a really lazy latch

booellesmum · 10/08/2016 20:22

I'm sorry I can't help with the cause of your pain, but DD1 refused to feed from one side for any longer than a few seconds so fed mainly from one side for 12 months and no problems.

gamerchick · 10/08/2016 20:24

I fed on one side a few months in until 3 1/2, it won't make any difference to supply your boob will compensate. He just didn't like lying on that side to feed.

Bubbinsmakesthree · 10/08/2016 20:44

I also fed on one side only after about 6 months - supply was always lousy on the other side so just gradually stopped. I was slightly lopsided til I stopped feeding but it evened back out afterwards.

HaPPy8 · 10/08/2016 20:53

Are there any external signs of a problem?

PoloZolo · 10/08/2016 21:03

Is the pain worse during feeds or between them? Could it be this?

kellymom.com/bf/concerns/mother/nipple-blanching/

Definitely possible to feed from one side, mums with twins produce enough milk to do this if you think about it

dollydaydream84 · 10/08/2016 21:40

Is there anything on the nipple? I got a white spot the pain was incredible on one side. It was a milk blister or bleb- Google it, could it be that? Could you try nipple shields to reduce pain? Xx

Original poster

LifeGotInTheWay · 10/08/2016 22:38

Wow, didn't expect anymore replies after this morning, thanks everyone!

This is super helpful. I've been on fluconazole 400 on first day and the 200 every day for over a month now. Still have a couple of weeks to go and baby on Dakartin gel after rubbish nystatin for a while. I can't see that the fluconazole will make any more of a difference now.

I will definitely try the capsules and grape seed extract mentioned above, never heard of those.

The main pain is deep in the breast but nipple is not great either.

Interesting so many mentions of tongue tie. I could write a whole other thread on that. DC finally had it cut at 8 weeks and it was severe, tongue totally pinned to bottom of mouth. That is how all this started and I feel that the damage done to my nipple in those first 8 weeks was so bad, blebs, bleeding, big holes etc that the nipple has never recovered. I feel all of this relates back to all that damaged tissue, which ties in with what you're saying.

My nipple does blanche severely after most feeds. Thank you for the link on blanching, I didn't know this could cause deep pain.

After tongue tie was cut feeding itself became almost painless but this nipple has never quite recovered and the pain in the breast started.

I'll look into some of the blanching stuff and also try those extra thrush treatments and give it till the end of the month. If it hasn't worked I will embrace a new lopsided life! Great to hear succeed stories of feeding on one side

OP posts:

PoloZolo · 10/08/2016 22:44

Glad you found the link helpful, perhaps you could express for a bit on that side to give it time to heal but keep your supply going in case you want to try that side again in a week or so?
If it helps to know, I had the nipple blanching thing too and you're right, it's a pretty intense deep pain, for me it went away when I managed to get a better latch, I'm sure my son was better at latching one side than the other. As their mouth gets bigger things get easier too.
All the best!

dollydaydream84 · 11/08/2016 08:29

I would definitely suggest seeing a lactation consultant the one I saw was by far the best person I've ever talked to about breast feeding and issues my HV arranged for me to see her via NHS good luck

Quietlyalert · 30/08/2016 22:10

Hello - I don't know if you've seen but another poster has posted about the same problem on another thread, I also responded to that. basically I had exactly the same problem and it was horrendous, you have my full sympathies. i saw doctors, lactation consultants (several both privately and at Children's Centres etc), had swabs done and was referred for breast exam at hospital. No-one could find out what the problem was. i convinced myself I had ductal thrush as the symptoms matched (deep shooting and burning in the breast that could last for hours, spread into the chest and armpit) and persuaded my very sceptical GP to prescribe fluconazole and the oral treatment for my baby who had no symptoms. we had weeks of treatment and it made no difference. eventually a poster on mumsnet who was also a lactation specialist pointed out that you do NOT get thrush in one breast only! I believe she was right and the diagnosis was incorrect. i believe the cause of my pain was nipple blebs (the blocked milk ducts you can see on the nipple which stop the milk coming out) - these preceded all my problems and led to severe engorgement of the breast, after which the post-feed pains started. after many weeks of misery and a bout of mastitis, i couldn't carry on feeding on that breast as the pain was severely affecting me, so i just stopped feeding on that breast. it was absolutely fine. i did some hand expressing / pumping (which oddly never led to the same pains) to try and stop the breasts becoming too engorged. after a couple of weeks i tentatively started feeding again on the affected breast - and we've been fine since, but i was extra cautious for a while to avoid blocked ducts, so being careful about latch and positioning etc. one thing I found really helped was heated breast pads (I bough Lansinoh ones from Amazon) that I'd use before feeds which seemed to help keep the blebs at bay. in the worst of the pain I'd hold an ice pack to my breast which also helps. i'm still feeding my daughter several months on so there is hope (I was so worried about having to give up as my daughter also had milk allergy and wouldn't take substitute formula, so stopping breastfeeding wasn't an option). i'd try and speak to a few breastfeeding experts if you can but be careful about self diagnosing, thrush treatment etc as that may not be the cause. sorry for the essay but these posts really brought back how awful the situation was and i wanted to let you know what helped me. i really hope you find some relief soon x

MrsNuckyThompson · 30/08/2016 22:13

I had thrush. It's hell.

It sounds strange to only have it on one side though because you'd think the baby would pass it on from side to side.

Are you treating your baby's mouth as well as your nipples?

I assume you've been on fluconazole?

Have you also been treating topically with daktarin or similar?

For me, it finally ended (when like you my GP told me I'd run out of options) when I did one last round of fluconazole AND daktarin with steroids. That seemed to give it the final push.

You've done so well, this is hell on earth. It makes me cringe to remember. I did get through tho and in the end fed my son til he was 2. It seemed so easy after the thrush went... Good luck!

elfycat · 30/08/2016 22:22

I wonder if there's another tie somewhere - back of tongue or a lip tie. Or if the first cut wasn't sufficient.

DD1 has a lip tie - thick strand running from her lip to directly behind her front teeth. Chances are there would be a tongue tie too.

BF was agony - pain straight through me to my shoulder blade. They kept telling me it was thrush but I knew it wasn't. Still kept feeding and like you there was one side that was more comfortable and one that would have me hissing through my teeth. I ended up doing a 3:1 ratio, but should have gone one side only.

Luckily my HV was a miserable old cow who wanted me to FF from day1 (DD1 was a hint prem and she wanted numbers and ounces of feeds to be charted, which can't be done with BF). 'Luckily' because I am a stubborn bitch when challenged and dictated to so I had extra motivation to keep going.

TriJo · 31/08/2016 11:29

I've had basically that from the time my son was 12 weeks, his tongue tie was diagnosed at 20 weeks and now (22.5 weeks) we're waiting on an appointment to have it snipped. I'm just worried that he's going to age out of the clinic at 26 weeks without having had it done.

Iamcheeseman · 31/08/2016 11:38

I can't help with the pain issue but DD is 2.5 and only feeds on the left now. Been that way since about 6/8 months. She never really got on with the right so I eventually stopped bothering with that side.

Quietlyalert · 31/08/2016 11:53

here's my thread from when i had this problem initially - you'll see the discussions that were had about thrush! www.mumsnet.com/Talk/breast_and_bottle_feeding/2200902-ductal-thrush-anyone-had-it?pg=1

CheersBigEars1 · 01/09/2016 22:13

Much sympathy from me! Agree with poster above that ductal thrush likely to occur in both sides, if not initially the through cross infection. FWIW I had severe pain on one side for about 3 months, ended up at a&e with a rather nasty case of mastitis through which I got a general surgery consult. They suggested that the pain was from an ongoing low level infection (which finally erupted) and then post infection pain. I had loads of blocked ducts and GP has treated for thrush, also had swabs but all okay. After several courses of antibiotics it did finally get better. I'm going for a breast scan next week just to check everything's okay. I'd push for further investigation and would be careful about stopping feeding. I really wanted to stop and people on here suggested one sided feeding but consultant was adamant this was not a good idea until things Are normalised. Good news is we are still feeding at 13 months and it's a delight, hope you get some resolution soon and let us all know how you get on!

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