cracked skin on fingertips and feeling nauseous when bfeeding, why???

[muminko]

I have now been exclusively breastfeeding for five months and its going well. I had an emergency c-section and whilst staying in hospital received lot of suport with bfeeding (also attended NCT classes). Bfeeding going well but after just 4 (intensive) weeks, I have developed vertical lines on skin of my fingertips. At times these feel quite tight and my skin looks shrivelled as though I have been in bath for a long time. Fingertips are sensitive to touch. I have also been taking iron tablets as I had an iron defficiency. This I dont think had caused my fingertips to look and feel "funny". I thought I may be dehydrated but I drink plenty of fluids. Also in last 2 months or so I feel quite nauseous when doing an evening feed. It almost feel like I want to throw up. Anyone else is experiencing weird things like this? HV told me to express some milk and do the bottle feed in the evening instead, but I dont want to do this and also it does not explain the cause of my maladies.

oops, pillicock, not pillock!

i thought you were pillockofthecommunity with a name change. Are you someone different?

I had both of these things (haven't read all other answers here) and the fingertips thing was because I wasn't drinking enough, definitely. I didn't factor in the extra amount of fluid I was losing daily in feeding DS! So drink more for starters. I don't use any form of soap/handwash etc. so I knew it wasn't that. And I was taking daily oil supplements as well, so it was less likely to be that. Drinking more fixed it.

The nausea I attributed to the hormonal flush that accompanies the let-down - I have a history of nausea with hormones (first OC pill, pg, labour) so it seemed an obvious association for me. It did go away after a while though (weeks, not days)

thumbwitch i agree entirely re hormones...

i too was sick when i took o/c though years ago - like 20 and sick in pg and horribly sick in labour so 'yes' to all that

plus am now bf 7 month old and not felt nauseous for a while ( like months) when feeding although did for first few months so not sure what happens...

muminko there are at least 4 of us with the fingertips thing on my postnatal thread (babies born in July last year). We have collectively ascribed it to washing our hands so much and the cold weather. I've been taking a daily oil supplement, increasing the amount of fish we were eating (well, needed to do that for the DCs anyway) and using vast quantities of the handcream my lovely MIL gave me. Other folks recommend the Body Shop hemp handcream, and I;ve used that in the past of it's fab!!

Can't help with the nausea, though.

pillicock & thumbwitch
I too had suffered from nausea and sickness throughout my pregnancy and was sick during my labour/operation, in fact at one point found myself contemplating if to be sick on my anesthetist or my newly born child

It should wear off soon, Muminko - I have a vague feeling that it stopped around 6m for me.

You could also try drinking fennel tea - it is good for the stomach and gets an extra drink into you as well! I never used any cream on my fingertips but I did need to drink quite a lot more to get them to go normal again. I am still bf'ing a 14.5mo, and they occasionally go a bit dry now, but not as bad (not feeding as much!) and I just have more fluid and it sorts it.

I have the fingertip thing- it;s definitely the increased handwashing/alcohol gel. I had it when dd was newb too. It will go as you get out of that phase.
Can't help on the nausea though I'm afraid- never had that. Are you eating enough? I ate like a horse the whole 17mo I fed my dd- just thinking that after 5 mo you may have tailed off on the food input.

lol i puked so much during labour that i took to wearing the cardboard vomit bucket on my head so that i didn't keep having to ask dh for it. hormones it is, then.

i feel really pleased actually Aitch - i like having resolution to lifes little mysteries

Yep I have the nausea - its just simple hunger for me though...its a weird kind of nausea as well isnt it - not like morning sickness.

Anyway mine goes away if I eat straightaway. Mostly pastry or cakebased items I've found work the best. Also Wispas.

sounds like a fab excuse to eat cake!