Day 3 breast feeding - the pain

[jmrpinkie]

Help! Baby is almost 3 days old. I want to breast feed her but from the first few tries my nipples were already so red and sore. I got great support at the hospital and she now seems to have a very good latch. Not perfect but good but the first 20!seconds of her on are horrendous and it still is quite uncomfortable. I’m thinking it’s because they were already sore and damaged. Anyone got any advice ?

I’ve got lanolin and regular application. I’ve ordered the silver cups and today and I think I’ll have to hand express and syringe freed to give a break.

The pain was absolutely awful for me for the first few weeks. I had to pinch my arm at the same time to take my mind off the pain.

Looking back I think my DD had a poor latch, as my nipples became very cracker. The silver cups really helped - much more than I thought possible.

I just persevered and after a few weeks no pain at all.

I’ve been through it quite recently and im still breastfeeding my 9 month old. It gets better very quickly once latch is sorted. If latch is good now, it’s likely just healing from when you were getting started. It was the same for me and by day 5 or so the pain was pretty much gone. Bloody painful though those first few days, I didn’t think I could continue at one point but I got there and so will you!

Update : went to a breast feeding clinic today which was so amazing (could do none of this with my first in 2020 with Covid) midwife said she does look to have a tongue tie and has referred me to hospital just in case. She did say though it could self correct/stretch out. Anyone had a tongue tie and the pain has gone away as you feed more and more?

@jmrpinkieI’ve got no experience with tongue tie but it’s great that you’ve got some support!

How is it all going @jmrpinkie?

My baby is a week old today and I’m hoping you’ll have a positive outcome as I’m in the torture period currently!

@PinkFlamingo888 awww congratulations. How is it going?

Mixed! The positive thing is I am still exclusively breast feeding. The less positive is it’s still so painful. The last few days something changed as well so my nipples are now cracked and just not healing. The doctor has given me some antibiotic cream which I need to try today but it’s one you need to wash off before feeding so wasn’t super keen but it’s not improved over the weekend so I think I need to try it.

Ohhh it is so painful when they are cracked. That suggests to me something still not right with the latch, and also are you paying close attention to how baby is positioned? I found videos very helpful. It’s been a few years since I was where you are but hope if you google you can find videos about ‘exaggerated latch’ or ‘the flipple technique’. Also if you haven’t tried it, feeding in a recline position with baby lying facing up to you, is not intuitive but can mean baby has to open their mouth wider to latch. Basically there’s a lot about the timing of baby opening their mouth wide, and you bringing them in close at the right moment. It takes practice, and at the beginning their wee mouths are so tiny.

If you aren’t doing it already, I’d make sure to break the latch and start again if you are uncomfy. You feel bad to do it, but ultimately it’s helping you both in the long run.

Sending sympathy - I had cracked nipples with my eldest and it was torture. Still gives me shivers thinking about it now nearly eight years on. I found hydrogel pads to be really helpful, you can buy in boots/Amazon and then cut down to size.

Have you been seen again re tongue tie after the referral? My eldest has hers cut at 13 weeks and it made a massive difference almost straight away.

I can still remember the pain when I was breastfeeding my daughter. Every feed was agony, and not just the first few seconds. My nipples were incredibly sore, cracked, and bleeding, and nothing I tried helped. I stopped breastfeeding after about a month when I saw my daughter's little mouth covered in blood from my nipple. I wished that I had stopped much sooner, but I felt under such enormous pressure to continue breastfeeding.

Oof, this brings back painful memories. I realised recently that I was on a lot of pain relief post-c section, and breastfeeding was still absolute torture - far more painful than my incision.

Have you tried the Multi-Mam compresses? I found them very soothing on cracked nipples. And have you been able to pump? If you really want to continue EBF, pumping would mean someone else can give a bottle to give your nipples a chance to heal.

Ultimately breastfeeding didn't work out for us, but I had cracked nipples with blisters as well and I can feel it now. It was excruciating.

Thank you! We are so in love with him but the painful feeding and lack of sleep are tough! He is entirely worth it though!

Sorry to hear you’re still in pain. Needing to wipe away a cream when they feed so regularly sounds really frustrating but hopefully it’ll do some good! I bought some ‘silver’ cups and nipple shields the other day but I felt the shields just encouraged a poor latch and the silver cups aren’t actual silver so I’m not sure they’ll have the desired effect, though I do feel like I’m in a bit less pain since using them so we’ll see!