Help please - Swollen nipple after baby bit it :(

[Glooorb]

Hi all, just wanted to get some advice - my baby is 4 months old and in the tricky phase where sometimes they are really easily distracted.

Yesterday during breastfeeding he turned his head and bit into my nipple, and pulled it. It hurt like hell 😵

Since then the nipple has swelled up quite a bit (like double it's normal size). The base of the nipple on the areola is also swollen... it's really painful.

Has anyone had this before?

What did you do to help reduce the swelling and pain? I'm taking ibuprofen and putting a cold flannel onto the nipple after every feed. I may try Epsom salt baths but not sure how long / How much to do? I don't really fancy pumping since I figured pumping will also pull on my nipple anyway.

Also if you had this before how long did it take for the swelling to go down?

Many thanks for any help!

When my little one was 7 months he bit my nipple so bad it bled and scarred . This was 16 months ago and the scar is still there 😩

If I remember correctly it took a while to heal and I fed from the other boob more ( as much as I could without my sore boob getting too engorged ) to help with the healing.

This has just brought back painful memories.
I remember the same happening...a few times. I did same as your, cold flannel and made sure I dried it well after feeds and made sure I aired it to help it heal. Pretty much had my boob out for 3 days. It did get better after about 2-3 days but still stung a little for about 5 days. I did keep feeding off it but probably not as long.

I know you know this but I went back to religiously breaking the seal at babies mouth with my finger when I changed sides or went to move to try and limit this.

Good luck. You are doing a great job.

Thank you @EgSk @BrownRogerForever for your replies! In a way good to know that other mamas have the same issues.

It's getting better so wanted to share what I did in case anyone sees this thread in the future 😊

• cold flannel on nipple after every feed / pump for 5 mins (wish I could do 10 mins but never had enough time!)
• Epsom salt soak twice a day (ideally would have done 3 times a day but no time!!). 1/2 teaspoon in 250 ml of warm water. Soak for 5 mins. (Ideally would have done 10! Seeing a theme here?? 😉)
• pumped exclusively for 24 hours to allow nipple healing time (after every pump the nipple will swell up btw but tends to go down after cold compress)
• ibuprofen
• nipple cream
• tried medela's breast shells to keep any pressure off the nipple. Unfortunately they didn't really work since my nipple was so swollen that the top of the nipple was touching the breast shell cover ☹️

All in all, my nipple was bitten Sunday morning and it's starting to get better on Wednesday evening. I stupidly didn't use cold compress immediately until Monday morning when I realised the swelling wasn't clearing by itself - I would do cold compress immediately in the future. I also didn't start pumping until Tuesday morning - I would probably have started on Monday once I realised the swelling isn't getting better itself.

Hope this helps other mamas!