Painful to feed 4 day old

[Mummytoboyxx]

I’m really determined to breastfeed my DD after not being successful with my DS. She’s doing lots of cluster feeding at night and generally is latching on frequently but quickly falling asleep. Obviously this is tiring but the worst thing is the pain in both nipples. I think she’s latching on ok but they’re so dry and cracked that feeding is so painful. Any suggestions? X

It gets better as your body gets used to it 😊 but it is heinous to start with. I used to wander round with no shirt on to let everything air, and apply bm. Once all the dead bits fall off and you stop bleeding, it’s far far easier. They get used to it very quickly, but no one warns you about the first week or so.
Congratulations though! Stick with it - it’s worth it!

Hi, a lot of advice is that if you are getting pain then you need the latch checking. Do you have access to a breastfeeding specialist that could check the latch? Personally I found that the first few weeks were painful even with a good latch, maybe I just have sensitive nipples 😳 I found that lanisoh, ibuprofen and breastfeeding shells helped nipples to heal a bit between feeds. I also pumped and bottle fed for some feeds to give sore nipples a break. It’s not much fun in the early stages: I struggled with both of mine but was glad I persevered as it pays off when they’re bigger.... good luck!

Thank you for replying. I had a breastfeeding lady from the local children’s centre come over earlier to check. She think it may have been the latch. It’s early days so it’s just a matter of me and my DD practising together. Plus applying lots of nippe cream! I’m determined to persevere with this!

Nipple*

I used lansinoh from the get go and luckily my nipples never got to bad! Have you been using a cream xx

@HJWT I’ve just had an amazon delivery of purelan 100, so hopefully it’ll do the trick x

It’s hell isnt it, but it does pass.

I’m on day 12 of breastfeeding DS and it is sooo much better than day 4/5 - actually managing to latch him on without swearing now! Hang on in there it does get better.

Put a LOAD of nipple cream on both nipples after every feed, whether you’ve fed from that side or not.
I went through a whole tube of lansinoh in my first week.
It does get easier I promise.

It’s good to know things get easier! Will get applying the cream then! X

Yeah. Lansinoh and breast shells were what helped me - a bad latch gave me ulcers on my nipple at first and they healed really well with the breast shells (I got them from Amazon - they came with two different shell types: one for airing, with little holes in, and one to catch leaked breastmilk).

To be honest, I think that it does just hurt at first, even when everything is as it should be. I used to count to fifteen through gritted teeth at the start of each feed, and by about four weeks, it was a lot better.