Please help me with bf pain before I seriously conisder giving up

[lilymolly]

I am exclusivly feeding ds (9 days) and it is going well for him, weight gain, sleeping, going about 2-3 between feeds, loads of yellow mustard seed poos etc etc, so he is thriving..........

The problem is its agony for me

Several midwife have seen my latch and said its perfect, I have tried rugby ball and normal postioning to no avail.

I have no cracked nipples thanks to lansinoh, no mastitis, no real engorgment issues, but its still hurts like hell.
I have to scratch my boob as he feeds to take away the pain.

I had exactly the same issue with dd and I fed her until 17 weeks at which point I gave up due to the same reasons.

They both seem to be effective feeders, by that I mean both dd and ds will empty a boob and be satisfied in 20 mins, and have a really strong suck, neither of them lost any weight in the first week of birth and dd gained weight beautifully when she was bf.

Do you think its something I have to put up with and persevere or do you think there is something else I can do?

I am waiting until the infant feeding coordinator from the hospital calls me back, but is there anyone else I can try?

Please help I really dont want to stop

hey lilymolly
i think i have worked out that with my dd it is positioning that's causing the painful gnawing problem.

i think i have been holding her with her mouth right next to my nipple so she didn't really have to open her mouth wide enough. have now tried holding her with her nose next to my nipple and it seems better. plus on my right side i just find it more awkward generally-it doesn't feel natural to hold her that way. so i really have to think about what I'm doing whereas on the left side it just seems to happen more naturally.
any chance that could be your problem? though i think you said you were holding her nose to nipple...

Def feel the right side is more painfull.

Mw jsut been around and she thinks my positioning and latch is perfect, just he may be slipping during a feed so I have to keep his head really still and close to breast.

With the right side, I am doing rugby ball for the first half of the feed, then normal postion for the rest of the feed, and although its not painfree its def better!

I think as his mouth gets bigger, it may help.
He is obv doing really well, as he slpet from 7.30pm until 9am this morning waking up every 3 hours for a feed, then straight back to sleep

Thats is why I dont want to stop the bf

yes my dd wriggles too and moves her head about during a feed too...best to re-do the latch in that case rather than putting up with pain!

fingers crossed things get better for you
it's a shame to go through the ordeal-by-fire of sore nipples only to find it still hurts

now if i could just sort out dd's windy tummy things would get a lot easier...she was farting like a trooper this morning and woke herself up poor thing

i also think that for a while your nipple will still be sensitive even if you're now getting it right-takes a while to recover from a good chewing. am v. sensitive on my right side even though feeding doesn't feel so bad.

Have you asked your midwife if there are any breastfeeding workshops in the area. Where I live there are classes at both the hospital and the local health centre. My midwife was saying that the government is getting concerned about the amount of women giving it up at the 2 week stage and as such are trying to get these classes with breast feeding specialists there to help women with any problems and encourage them to persevere.

I also rang the NCT helpline when I was having a hysterical moment and they were really helpful.

Good luck, you have my every sympathy because I know how soul destroying it is.

Hi there, I had the same as you, DS did fine but it was excruciating and it didn't get better after a few days. Here's what helped me:

1. Different feeding position - lying on bed or sofa on my side with baby beside me. I only ever fed in this position after discovering it. Since the bed/sofa entirely supports baby, there is no slippage or change of position meaning change of latch.

1. Nipple shields - don't think I would have got by without them, and I used them for months - at least 2 months.

1. Nipple shields! The more I think about it, the more I think has I not used these, I would have been forced to give up.

Good luck!

I had the exact same problem and although there were no symptoms of thrush, the pain completely disappeared after just 2 days of me using Daktarin cream after each feed and Daktarin oral gel in baby's mouth twice a day - please give this a go even if you have no signs, I couldn't believe the difference.

Get your DC checked and rechecked for tongue tie. Every midwife, hv and gp missed it with ds and it was only many months later that I realised that that had been the problem and had caused me agony. Good luck

It does get easier as they get bigger too, that was what eventually sorted it for me and ds and I went on to feed him til he was 20mo.