Help! - Really sore cracked nipple - can I just feed off one side?

[Pollyanna]

I have got a really bad crack in one of my nipples - the other side is ok-ish. I am worried that the crack will not heal if i carry on feeding with it (although the midwife says I have now got latching on right). Can I just feed off the "good" side to let the other side heal? If so, how long would it take for the crack to heal?

Advice is really welcome as this is agony!

Also, there is a red line on my breast (it looks like a line my bra would make iysim)leading up to the nipple. Does this sound like a blocked milk duct?

I don't know whether I've got mastitis or thrush or both. I'm taking the antibiotics now anyway, and have some cream for thrush. Also have some painkillers from the doctors which seem to be helping a bit.

What is recommended for thrush? I just read that cream isn't always effective if the thrush has got into the ducts. (I think it is thrush as I have really bad pains even after feeding, and I can see white bits in dds mouth).

If you have thruch Pollyanna, the antibiotics may actually make it worse. If you search for thrush you will find various threads on it - unfortunately I am going out shortly - if I don't get back hopefully someone will have got some kinlks for you.
Diflucan is a treatment you can get which is in tablet form by mouth. Your B/F counsellor should be able to give you info.
Stick with it though - it will get better as your treatment works.

here is a link with some info

thrushadvice

betterlink

When I got thrush and read up about it, the main thing seemed to be to make sure that both you and the baby got treated at the same time. I had cream for my nipples and drops (nystatin?) for dd. Also a cream for her nappy area as it was very sore.