Bloody nipples

[lucysnowe]

Hi all!

My new lovely dd is such a good sucker that both times she's latched properly she's made my nips bleed!

Basically this first happened soon after birth - my left hand nip got scabby so I didn't feel I could offer it any more. (blood can't be good for them can it?) She refused the right hand one(she gets overexcited/frustrated I think through hunger) so I had to formula feed at the hosp and at home with real latching problems. Recently we had a breakthrough with nipple shields (yay!) but she is still nibbly - no question of draining anything - and yesterday she had an aces monster suck (with the shield) at the bf clinic, and now, the nip is bleeding again.

Think I may have mastitis as well to cap it all!

Has anyone else had/solved this problem?

Thanks!

if you 'think' you have mastitis, i personally would go straight to the doc. I have it and i think my slightly delayed reaction to go to the gp has resulted in an abscess. I tried initially to massage out any lumps in my right breast, but one lump i just couldn't get to shift. you do not want it developing into an abscess....trust me good luck

I had bleeding nips with DS1. A lot. Made expresssed milk pink sometimes and I had got a hole in the left one as it never managed to heal properly so would start to scab over, then open up again at next feed [bleurgh]. DS1 threw up blood at 5 days old and we whisked him off to A&E on advice of NHS Direct only to find it was from me (this was when they started bleeding). I managed to bf for 4 months but I never managed to get them to heal properly til I had stopped. I don't think this is the norm though!!!

Yep, off to the gps this afternoon...thanks papaya!

The issue is motherh that it does appear the LO is latched properly (this was at the bf clinic) but is still drawing blood! She has been checked for tongue tie. It took her ages to drain my boob at the clinic (for the first time!) despite the sucking too.

Oh fantastic!... agghh reading eggs post
.. we are at 3 mths and I do wonder if my one will EVER heal before the time I stop.. sigh... am trying everything known to woman to help it heal, but not winning the battle so far.. and yep having blood does them no harm though I was concerned about that the taste might put him off [blus] to baby brain of mine!!

Hi Lucy, hope it turned out not to be mastitis, I've had it twice (ouch) but am still bf, so you're doing really well!
Have you got lots of lansinoh cream for your nipples? Should help them to start healing in those short gaps between feeds. I also used jelonet, it's a gauze with some sort of cream on it that also works very quickly to heal nipples.

Thanks for the comments! Do have mastitis, alas. I've decided to stick to pumping for a while because the LO probably won't drain the boob without making mincemeat of it. Hopefully it will mend soon and we can have another go.

egg - your post made me go eek - well done for sticking with it for four months.

Hiya lucysnowe,

Poor you! Know how you feel, although I don't have mastitis.

To help with my painful nips, as well as nipple shells, I've been using the Avent nipple shells to catch inter-feed drips & give the nips some air (product 3 on this page: www.avent.com/uk/en/breastfeeding_accessories.php) along with Lansinoh lanolin applied regularly.

Hope it all starts to clear soon.

I had cracked nipples at the beginning and fed DS through scabs. That was very painful, but they healed in the following seven days. He also spat up blood, which was mine. But it's not a problem for DC.

I have had no experience with mastitis, so if the blood comes from the "inside" the following might not be useful to you.

I always thought that airing them would be helpful for the healing process. But as I understand the latest verdict is that "moist healing" is better, which would mean covering the crack in lanolin and not letting it dry out. This way no scab forms and it does not have to re-crack every time. It is supposed to speed up the healing process.

Hope somebody with more medical knowledge will be around soon.

BTW I draw blood when I pump, but probably because I do not get the let-down reflex.