Painful breastfeeding

[anon138]

Hi, I need some advice on breastfeeding as I'm coming to the end of my tether with it. Baby is 7 days old and I am EBF. I am finding it excruciating, particularly at the beginning when she latches on. I have had the breastfeeding support team come out to me twice now to assess the latch. They say it is good and she is feeding well. My nipples literally bleed during a feed, I've had to wipe blood off my baby's face after feeding. A couple of midwives think she has a mild tongue tie. Another midwife disagreed, although she admitted that baby had a heart shaped tongue. Where do I go from here? I don't want to bottle feed but I was crying this morning from the pain. Has anyone got any advice?

Im really sorry its hurting

Im ebf my 4 week old and its been hell of a journey so far
Laninosh nipple cream helped me a little its on offer in boots atm

Maybe try a nipple shield?

Hope someone with more knowledge comes along

Thanks for replying. I have been putting on lots of Lansinoh cream but with the frequency of feeds, my nipples don't have time to heal. The breastfeeding team said to avoid nipple shields as she may not go back to the nipple afterwards. It just seems crazy that something so 'natural' should be this agonising

Ikr!
No one ever tells you how hard it is!

Hmmm when I was in hosp the bf specialist told the couple opposite me some people use them if they are sore etc for a little while

Maybe ring la leche league?

Im on 5th feed since midnight atm

I had really painful feeding for the first 3 weeks and suddenly it disappeared, was always told latch was good and no tongue tie. My dd literally sucked blood clots out of my nipples. One thing I found really helped were the multi-mam compresses, you can keep them in the fridge for after a feed which is a real relief. I got nipple shields to use when the pain just became too much, we didn't have a problem then not using them afterwards although I didn't use them for every feed. My dd was a hungry baby and was more concerned about just getting the milk! I ask found feeding laying down helped in the early days with baby laying next to me. I am a few weeks off having dc2 and just had a shower and remembered the pain of even the water hitting my nipples in the shower... it 100% gets better and so much easier. The early days were so painful and upsetting not ever expecting something 'so natural' to be so painful.
There is a Facebook group called 'boobies and banter breastfeeding support' which I found really useful. You usually need to be added by a friend but if you request to join and send one of the admins a quick message you should be fine. There is a wealth of information on there.
I also got nipple 'covers' that were hard plastic shell things that stops your clothes touching your nipples - I have never spent so much money on my nipples as I did in those first weeks.
I would also say if the pain doesn't go within a 'count to 10' after baby latching don't be scared to pop baby off with your little finger and relatch, I found that if the latch wasn't perfect for a feed it would make it all much worse for further feeds.

Best of luck x

I really feel for you OP. I had exactly the same thing too, and I know it's very common, so please don't worry that there's anything too unusual going on.

I used a nipple shield (Boots own brand) on the very painful side. I only needed to use it for one day before it started to feel a lot, lot better. My baby was a very similar age to yours at the time, and he didn't mind the shield (or get confused when we stopped using it again) at all.

Paracetamol will help with the pain.

Please don't think bf will be like this forever. If I remember rightly, for me, it gradually got better and before I knew it it was totally pain-free. If you can withstand the pain (and I know it can be excruciating), I hope you manage to push on through this horrible bit until it actually becomes pleasurable. I'm really, really glad that that's what I chose to do and I hope you find the same.

Best of luck xx

I found once you get past that first week it does get better but I used shields with my second but what I used to do was put it on for say 10 min then ease the shield off. It's a major bug bear of mine that the experts all say that it shouldn't hurt etc if you are doing it right because in my experience it hurts like hell until your nipples have toughened up.

Ouch you poor thing!! DD2 is 2 weeks now and we are having similar issues, exactly the same as I had with DD1 too!!
I would suggest seeing a lactation consultant, in my experience with the NHS the quickest way to do this is privately, it's often not as expensive as you'd think. With both my DDs midwives told me the latch looked fine but I could feel gums on my nipples and both had tongue ties which needed dividing. I've no doubt that this and follow up support helped me continue bf DD1 and I am having slow improvements with DD2, although it's still painful one week after the cut.
I also used nipple shields with both to help with the pain. Also found the "flipple" latch and rugby ball hold helpful for getting a deeper latch.
I found lansinoh irritating my nipples and hurt to put on as it's so thick. I used a herbal cream with calendula which is supposed to be good for healing. Using lansinoh actually encouraged thrush for me which was excruciatingly painful on top!!! Also reusable breastpads I found softer on my nipples than the disposable ones.
Good luck I know how soul destroying it is when you dread every feed!! :(

Are you using lanolin?

Sorry for rambling a bit... just wanted to clarify that even if baby isn't tongue tied a good lactation consultant will help you with latch issues etc and i found mine incredibly helpful and supportive. This time round I've also been going to every available breastfeeding support group available at all my local children centres! It varies how good the specialist midwives/peer support workers are, but in general I've found them really helpful for improving our latch.

Those first few weeks are hard.

I got through it with lots of lanolin cream and also some cooling breast discs.

I found what really helped also was constant googling and reading people's experiences and knowing about growth spurts.

DC is now 3 months old and it does get better.

Urgh I had this, many Do, Only my with my first though

Use a towel to pay dry your breasts after each feed and use lansinoh cream. It took a few weeks for me but things got better - it can be so miserable but there is a light I promise!

No one tells you this stuff pre baby!

Hideous but normal (ish) for 7 days in, OP. If breastfeeding is important to you, then hang in there, it will get better really soon.

Do you have a pump? I did a combination of nipple shields, lanisoh, air drying (ah the glamour of early motherhood) and pumping one side of the feed when I just couldn't take it. Skipping one side for even one feed (giving me 6 hours without my piranha baby attaching it) gave it time to heal and improve.

Nipple shields can impact supply but they can also enable breastfeeding to continue when nothing else is working. You could try them for one feed a day for a while just to take the edge off and give yourself time to heal.

Good luck OP!

I found expressing a little before latching really helped to get the nipple a better shape. Also the multi mam cream was great.

Oh and your baby's dad should be doing literally everything else, bringing you snacks and treating you like a goddess for the next two weeks at least.

I had the same and it is so frustrating. A heart shaped tongue is caused by a tight frenulum so that’s a tongue tie. Getting it cut may help. Both mine had TTs and I was told over and over again that their latch was good but oh my good God it hurt. It finally subsided about 6 weeks and was much less painful from 4. I know that feels like an eternity but it does eventually get easier. In the meantime lansinoh, frozen Savoy cabbage leaves in your bra and painkillers when needed helped.

I used nipple shields for months with all my babies. They still did bleed a bit even with those sometimes though. I would have given up without them for sure. My milk supply was massive, so massive that I had blocked ducts and mastitis many times. Looking back I really wonder why I put myself through it - sheer bloodymindedness!

I also gave a dummy so there was a bit less sucking on me.

Nipple shields - the UK advice about nipple confusion is probably outdated. Nipple shields nowadays are very thin and flexible so definitely worth trying. Be very careful about cleaning and drying them and your breast though, as otherwise thrush is more likely.

I've had cracked nipples with all 3 DC. If by day 7 there is no sign of improvement there's likely a problem somewhere and the first thing would be get the tongue tie sorted. One of mine had one that although not tight I had cut as he would start off with a good latch but it would get very shallow. Another DC had s tongue tie but didn't seem to affect feeding so it's not been cut. If you've just had a couple of feeds with a bad latch and the areas of trauma are now improving then nipple shields would be enough to allow healing.

Sounds like something is wrong, either latch or tongue tie. I put up with weeks of extremely painful, constant feeding, with midwives and health visitor telling me my latch looked fine and there was nothing wrong.

Finally had tongue tie, high arched palate and recessed jaw diagnosed by a good lactation consultant, along with some helpful advice latch. Snipped a week later, and after a couple of weeks things were improving. Still feeding now at 2!

If there is possible tounge tie which sounds like there may be as two midwives have though the case and you’ve got pain too, please see a lactation consultant. TT is often missed and getting it sorted can make a massive difference to pain and leaving it can cause feeding and other problems down the line.

Often midwifes aren’t experts in breastfeeding which is why a LC can really help. If your nipples are bleeding and you are in a lot of pain, I guess her latch isn’t good like they are saying.

I honestly don't know if this helps but my midwife checked the latch and said Baby shouldn't be sucking the nipple but more the area round it. If you DD is just on your nipple then latch isn't right. Mine stopped hurting completely after that advice

Thank you all so much for replying. I was in tears to my midwife this morning and she told me to buy nipple shields and a breast pump, despite the breastfeeding team not recommending them. She says that she's seen so many women struggle with breastfeeding and the best thing to do is whatever works! The shields are helping now. She also advised buying a dummy for baby as when she came and watched her feed, she uses me for a comfort suckle which isn't helping either. Basically she's advised everything the breastfeeding team doesn't, but I trust her more as she has 35 years experience of this and the breastfeeding team seem to have this idealistic view of 'well it shouldn't hurt'. I will certainly persevere with my new purchases, she feeds well so it would be such a shame to give up. It's refreshing to hear I'm not the only one struggling and that it does get better.

Glad the shields are helping and you feel a bit better about it all.

Whilst I agree with ‘do what works’ it’s also important to identify the cause of the problem, so if it is TT that is causing the pain then this really needs to be treated. You don’t want to be in the position where the shields are just masking the problem (but fantastic that they are helping in the meantime).

This is often where you need a LC rather than a midwife as even the best midwives aren’t specialists in this area. (It’s maybe like expecting a dentist to assess authodondic work, they would probably have an idea but you wouldn’t want them to start putting braces on you!).