Desperate not to give up breastfeeding but feel not keeping up and v. sore breasts for last 5 weeks

[Warwickmum]

Hi, this is my first baby so could do with some advice. I think there may be two problems but not sure if two may be connected. My little boy is 12weeks today and last wed was 14lb5.5oz, so I realise he is doing well, but for about the last 4/5 weeks I have been getting really sore breasts. It started one day with a small (and I mean about the size of a sewing pin head)white area on one nipple and both were feeling really sore and prickly and by that evening I couldn't bear anything, not even my pyjamas to touch them. Of course this was on a friday! Tried to get Dr appt but couldn't. Rang HV for advice as I was wondering if it might be thrush but she couldn't really help much. In end went to Boots on Sat and spoke to pharmacist who gave me daktarin gel to put on. This did seem to help with the burning/pricklyness and the white thing seemed to start 'drying' up. Got Dr appt for Mon and sure he wondered why I was there as white patch almost invisible by then! Said carry on with gel for a week. Pain did seem to get a bit better in the week and so stopped using cream. However, the white patch reappeared and is still there. Nipple really sore where it is. Actually breast tissue is very tender to touch and nipples keep getting very sore/spiky pains/too uncomfortable to put in bra! Not particularly red but very uncomfortable. Also seems that son may not be getting enough milk by the evening as he is constantly bobbing on and off at bedtime feed after about 7 min on one side and bit less time on the other. Normally he feeds for about 50 min all told!
Sorry to write so much but the pain/discomfort really starting to stress me out and all HV keep saying is 'make sure you massage breasts when in the bath' -obviously they don't realise how hard it is to have a bath with a new(ish) baby!
Many Thanks to anyone who has the time to read all this!

Warwick, some advice from a properly qualified person would really help (GPs and HVs generally speaking have little training in this field.)
How breastfeeding works is a really good site run by an MNer. Look on the right hand side of home page.All the best organisations are listed with their phone numbers.
Give one of them a call.

yes sounds like thrush. search thrush in the breast and bottlefeeding archives here on MN and some proper information and links will come up to take to your GP to get proper treatment.

Second the advice re getting proper help.

Re the white spot could it be one of these?:

www.kellymom.com/bf/concerns/mom/nipplebleb.html

I had one with DS1 and did find not a lot of people knew much about it. Came up again this time and went much quicker, I found keeping the skin soft really important, put a little olive oil on breastpads/cotton wool in bra, and hot damp flannels before each feed - put hot water in a bowl as hot as you can stand and wring out and reapply the flannel a few times. Hot shower on it good too when I could find time. Also feeding in different positions can help in case an area isn't draining efficiently, and I expressed on the side with the milk blister until very little was coming out whilst massaging it down towards the nipple. With DS 1 I expressed like this once a day for a while, this time only needed to do it once. With DS1 I also tried bursting it with a sterile needle as mentioned in the link, which I do not recommend!! Also took soya lecithin, don't know if it helped, but it did go away.

Sorry for the waffle, don't know if you're suffering same, but was blimming agony so hoping some of it could help!

PS GP thought it was thrush but treatment didn't help, so fairly sure it wasn't. Is the white patch always the same place? Mine came and went but always in the same spot, and exactly the same place with next baby.

Thanks for all the advice. Will try and give one of the helplines a call.
I think that I may well have two things going on here. Purplemyrtle I think that I may have one of those nipple blebs, although it doesn't seem to be a 'blister' as such but milk does come out directly where it is so maybe it is a partial one. It is always in same place and like you say it comes and goes a little, although it is there most of time. Will try your suggestions for hot flannels etc. And like you say, yes it is 'blimming agony !
As for the GP, when I went with the Daktarin the pharmacist had given me (mainly to check if he thought it was thrush and that it was ok to use with breastfeeding), I think he just went with my self diagnosis of thrush as no obvious white patches on me (and at this point the little white thing looked to be drying up so was minute and more yellowy)and nothing in baby mouth. I asked if baby needed any treatment if it was thrush and he said no! As said above, I thought both needed treating to stop it going back and forth.
Thanks again and hopefully I can get this sorted as I really, really don't want to give us breastfeeding at this stage.

P.S. Forgot to ask, can thrush lead to reduction in milk production does anyone know?

it could also be a blocked duct. sorry i didn't read thoroughly yesterday. massage from behind the ares of pain toward nipple will help to move the blockage. i've never suffered these but some women seem more prone to them.

Hi Warwickmum, it does sound ever so much like the problem I had, it too went minute and yellowy and GP looked at me as if I was a bit crazy when I showed her and it was hardly visible! I'm no expert but it sounds to me like it may not be thrush, which I think some believe is over diagnosed - maybe have a look at BFnetwork stuff:

www.breastfeedingnetwork.org.uk/thrush-and-breastfeeding.html

The white spot they mention sounds like the same sort of thing.

If it helps to know it was utterly horrible whilst it was going on, I was close to giving up at times, but it did go away and I ended up feeding DS1 for just over a year with no further trouble.

Another thought, don't avoid feeding on the side with the spot, I initially did that which made it much worse.

Sorry don't know about the milk production thing.

Really hope it improves lots soon.

Warwickmum just wanted to send support in your general direction. I had thrush for 7 weeks, I know how horrible it is. The thing that finally kicked it for me was two courses of fluconozole (it's not technically licenced for bf mothers but is perfectly safe - less of it comes through to your milk than the baby would get if prescribed it, which they can be!) and also going on a hardcore no sugar/caffeine/dairy diet. Also my DD showed no signs of thrush throughout but they do definitely still need to be treated.

As far as I know - which isn't much - thrush doesn't affect supply but others will know far better than me.

Only thing that makes me wonder if low level thrush at same time is that it is both nipples that sore. The white thing (which I am almost certain now is a nipple bleb) is only on one side.
And purplemyrtle, that was exactly the same response I got from my GP - after a weekend of agony (why do these things only happen at the weekend when you can't see anyone!) I got an emergency appt on the Monday morning to see any Dr I could and yes, he looked at me like I was totally mad/wasting his time when what I had to show him was almost invisible at that time!
I have been making sure I do feed on that side and trying to express as much as poss after. I did also have blocked ducts twice a couple of weeks ago, which I am sure are ducts that seem to open out to where the patch is so again makes me agree that is nipple bleb.
Will definitley get the advice from someone who knows more than the GP seems to and then go ask them for the necessary stuff if they think thrush might be there.

Thanks again for all the help and support - it really does help