Breastfeeding: How long is it painful for?

[CannotBelieveImAskingThis]

As the title says really. Baby is 5 weeks old, already had his tongue tie cut 11 days ago. Breastfeeding is still painful and I'm sore.
Please let me know your stories.

I had a good few weeks where it wad toe curlingly painful. Then I found let downs to be a little painful. But it did get easier after about 3 really tough weeks. Equally it didn't hurt straight away either... only started hurting after 2 weeks of feeding.

Silver cups are a god send for healing. And you could try nipple shields or pumping and offering a bottle to give yourself a rest.

If you're really struggling ask to speak to the infant feeding coordinator in the hospital you gave birth in. I'd also join a bf support group as they can give you manual support to get a good latch as well as information and emotional support. The early weeks are so hard you're going amazing!

Did the person who cut your tongue tie assess your feeding positions and take photos for you to refer back to? Just a cm the wrong way and you'll have painful feeds even after tongue tie is done.

The pain was instantly gone with tongue tie sorted with one of mine. The other had done too much nipple damage so needed to heal that before I could feel the benefits of no longer having TT.

Mine was more painful than my labour... And I had no pain relief. Honestly I bled so much from my nipples I would cry and breastfeed!!! I never found out what was wrong. I attended a bf group and a transgender woman was there to learn and it put me and half the group off.

It took 4 months before it stopped being painful, his mouth just got bigger and my nipples stretched out.

With my second there was zero pain from birth. Though I'm pretty sure any sensory receptors on my nipples died.

The ONLY thing that helped me with the pain were these medicated multimam pads someone bought from Amazon. They are amazing!!! And I tried EVERYTHING! Get them, they will help you soo much. They are expensive though but so so worth it!

DS hurt for the first 12 weeks. After the first 3 weeks it was toe curling for the first 5 seconds only.

Had DD and it didn't hurt at all.

I'm a long time BF peer supporter and mum of 2 TT'd babies.

One of the biggest misconceptions about TT is that getting it snipped will cure everything. Sometimes it does, but often, it doesn't. It takes at least a good 2 weeks and often more for baby to regain full movement.

Your baby had 3 weeks of learning to feed with a restriction, plus that restriction has held his tongue down for 6.months in the womb. The tongue is a big muscle and just snipping the frenulum is not an instant fix. Often mums have learned a way to hold them that isn't as painful, but is less effective, or they've just gritted their teeth and put up with it as they've had a referral for the TT and think that will be it.

All this to say, you need to get to a really good support group/private lactation consultant, for proper face to face latch advice asap. It took me several weeks to crack BFing with child 2, whose tie was snipped at 5 days old, simply because getting my head round positioning and attachment was hard and he needed time too.

A few things helped for me: (1) very good lactation consultant assisting with positioning... no more rugby ball hold, instead a more vertical hold (2) tongue tie divided (3) I also got brave enough to pump (was too scared when I was in serious pain to add in anything extra!), which gave the damage time to heal (4) the relief pads: medela are the best (but expensive) (5) I would also try to take pain relief 20 mins before feeding (but didn't always manage and when you have a hungry crying child, can't wait for ibuprofen to kick in...)

In relation to (1), a few midwives had said the latch/technique was fine, but when I got a private one-to-one consultant she properly assessed me and made some really great suggestions that reduced the pain a LOT.

So as others say, if you can see a proper lactation consultant then do!

I'm afraid though that I ended up jacking in the exclusive breastfeeding pretty quickly, even after it got a lot better... the bad start (I was in the bleeding and crying category) just put me off I think and adding formula was a blessed relief after I got over feeling a bit disappointed that breastfeeding hadn't "worked" perfectly. I think if I'd had the lactation consultant earlier things might have gone differently, but oh well.

Good luck, and be proud of yourself whatever h happens!

About 2 weeks. It was toe curlingly painfully at first but got better after about a week and much better after 2.

By 6 weeks it was a lot easier and all pain had gone, was so convenient from then onwards

This, was worse with DC2 than DC1.

I've breastfed 3 babies, it took around 4 weeks until it was no longer painful, however with the last baby it was a lot quicker. I watched a YouTube video which changed everything. When baby latches on, with each suckle you push more of your breast in their mouth with your thumb (gently feed in the top of the breast) so they've got a deeper latch. It may help you, worth a try. It immediately made feeding comfortable and my nipple's healed. Wish I'd known to do it with my other two.

I'm sorry, I don't mean to drip feed. I should have said, I'm already under the lactation consultant. I've seen two different ones and they've been helpful - one was the person who referredus for a TT assessment- but it hasn't fixed the problem entirely. Now it takes longer to get to 'this-is-too-much'.
Before the TT every feed was hell. Now it's been about a week of 80% BF and 20% bottle. But tonight I'm back to being in quote a bit of pain.
I just want to know when it gets easier. I want to BF my baby, but tonight I'm crying and feeling rubbish because once again, it'd too much.

I'm sorry to hear this. I cried too. There is something really horrible about dreading feeding your child because it hurts... I remember DD would cry for milk and I'd start crying because I knew it was going to hurt me and felt really sad that I couldn't enjoy doing it.

Breastfeeding did become painfree for me once the initial damage had healed. From memory that did take a little while: maybe a couple of weeks.

Oh, huge hugs to you - I remember that well!! It hurt horribly at first - I used to curl my toes and count to ten - then it got better after a bit. I can't remember how long now, a couple of weeks or so? Lansinoh really helped me to recover between feeds, and adjusting baby's latch as he was feeding- making sure his top lip was "fishy lip" and gradually pulling his little chin down. Eventually we both worked it out and he latched fine, but mid feed adjustments worked well in the very early days. Then he started to teeth ....!!! You're doing amazingly well, xxxx

Six weeks for me, and then somehow it just got less painful and quickly stopped being painful at all.

Are you doing the exaggerated hold - so shaping your breast with fingers in a U shape (thumb parallel to baby's top lip), and keeping it there for the whole feed? TT'd babies often struggle with keeping a wide open mouth and this really helps but many mums are keen to just bring that other hand round. When he slips off, unlatch, reset, start again.

It sounds like things are going the right direction - if you are allowed paracetemol/ibuprofen normally, you can take them when BF (source: drugs in breastmilk fact sheets), which can dull the pain too. This is all really normal for a post tongue division baby, as I said above, while some people like a PP do experience instant, constant improvement, for most it goes immediate difference, regression for a few days, slow improvement but more in a 2 steps forward 1 step back kind of way, for at least 2 weeks, if not 3-4, and that's with good BF support.