very sore right nipple and now left getting bad too... DS 13 days old and i feel very down... please help

[Bicnod]

hello - i'm bf DS who is my first baby and am feeling very very down about it. my right nipple has been sore for a few days - i've been using lansinoh after every feed and using nipple guards because it hurts too much without. the nipple isn't cracked or bleeding but just really hurts right in the centre and is quite white in the middle. left nipple now feeling sore too. feeling very down as feel trapped in house as can't bf in public with nipple guards (fall off, DS knocks them etc). he has gained 8oz in a week so clearly getting enough...i want to perservere but will the pain go away soon/is this normal toughening up process? really need some reassurance... thanks x

oh poor poor you.

I just wanted to say that with my first child I was in excrutiating agony with breastfeeding and I knew the latch and evertything else was good. I used nipple shields whihc relieved the pain a little. I tried expresing to give myself a break although I wasn't good at it.

At two weeks, the pain just stopped, no clear reason. It was as if my nipples had just got used to it.

No idea what the issues might be with you but if you are very keen to carry on bf, sometimes it does just take time so there is some hope.

Good luck, hope you get good advice and you are not a failure in any way if you switch to ff.

Those growth spurts are a killer, it's true. At least you have a MW who is clued up about these things and didn't just tell you to make him go every 4 hours or give formula.

Let us know how you get on. I think you are doing a great job in very difficult circumstances

nct bf counsellor coming to see me on wed at 9am fingers crossed she'll be able to help...

thanks so much for all the support on this thread... it really helps to know i'm not on my own x x x

Is it getting any better?

bicnod have another go at rugby ball, try putting him on a cushion at the right height with your arm round him but leaving his head free.

hopefully bfc will be able to help, just a little change can really make a difference.

bicnod in those early weeks when it was really hard going I used to tell myself I could manage just one more feed before I gave up. One feed didn't seem so impossible. Then gradually things got better. Good luck.

just seen this thread - this is me too bicnod!

i've had sore nipples throughout feeding from day one - so prob not thrush! MW never saw a problem. HV said my latch was good. luckily we have a feeding support team in our health authority - bristol, so got in touch with them. they agreed that it prob wasn't thrush or my latch.
turns out LO has a tongue tie. this was diagnosed on friday, treated with a snip to the excess skin under the tongue on monday and possibly noticing a difference today. (may be wishful thinking though)
DS slept through the whole think till they grabbed his tongue, he then ate straight away - to make use of antibacterial properties in breast milk and then fell back asleep!

defo recommend getting checked for tongue tie!

hi lilymolly, fishie and tatt... thanks for posting...

still hurting but still hanging in there - just knowing i'm seeing the nct bf lady tomorrow helps...

tatt, your one more feed approach seems like a good one... i haven't got any formula in the house but might get some just so in know its there if i desperately need it...

fishie - i'll ask the bf lady to show me the rugby ball position again...

thanks again for all the support x x

hi mrsflux - i'm really pleased that your problems seem to be sorted - i'll ask the HV about tongue tie...

...i don't think MW and HV are that bothered about mum's nipples if the baby is putting on weight

i hope things continue to improve for you x x

Hope the bf counsellor has arrived and is helping as we speak! Let us know how you get on xx

Hope she is helpful! Let us know how you get on x

Hmmmmmmmmmm. The bf counsellor came this morning and she was lovely, but unfortunately Oscar needed to be fed from my not so sore side and he fed beautifully (none of the head shaking and tugging at the nipple)... so he fed really well and it didn't hurt too much. She showed me some ways to improve the positioning and she showed me the rugby ball position again. She also said that as long as he feeds for 20-30 minutes he'll get the hind milk so I think I've been trying to get the poor little mite to feed for too long as I was under the impression he had to feed for about an hour at a time.

Anyway, the next feed was excrutiating (and the bf counsellor had gone by then) as it was on my sore nipple. I got through the next three feeds with the use of nipple guards, trying the improved positioning and gritting my teeth but by 5 o'clock this afternoon I was phoning DH in floods of tears saying I can't do this anymore.

I was putting off feeding Oscar when he was crying because I know it hurts so much... I feel like a complete failure as a mum and I don't understand why I can't do this.

DH has got some formula milk in just in case as this afternoon it dawned on me that if at some point it becomes just too painful I don't have a back up plan.

I don't really know what to do now. I'm going to have to continue using the nipple shields because it's just too painful without them, but I wonder if my nipples will toughen up while I'm using them (it does still hurt a lot even with the shields, but it is just about bearable).

I feel so miserable. I really want to start enjoying being a mum and enjoying my beautiful son but at the moment I'm just dreading every feed, I can't go out as there's no way I could feed in public in this much pain and I just feel like I'm letting him down.

Sorry for the long post. I'm feeling very sad right now and not sure what I'm going to do next. DH has got tomorrow off so we're going to work on my positioning over the next 24 hours and see how it goes. I really really don't want to give up but I don't know how much more I can take...

bicnod

So sorry to hear you are still having problems.

If it is any consolation, so am I.
Matthew is now 6 weeks old and the right nipple is still very sore. The left one, is ok not painfull but not pleasant either.

I am really pushing through the pain barrier every time I feed on the right hand side, and literally grasp and squash my breast as he feeds just to get through it. This particular breast is also always very full, squirts if he comes off, and makes him choke with the power of the flow, compared to the left hand one, which he feed from with no fuss or mess.

I sometimes think its just that he is a powerful sucker, and sucks so hard it hurts.

Now we have been feeding for 6 weeks , I am getting another bf counsellor out to check the postioning again to see if I can improve it.

I have no bottles or sterilser or fornula in the house, and find that this can keep me going as I have no alternative to feed him iyswim?

I am so determined to keep bf as long as posisble, and I too like you have cried tears and vowed to give up, but here I am 6 week on............so please keep seeking the help, and hopefully it will get better.

Sorry I cant be more helpful, but i thought, that hearing that other people are going through the same, may sort of give you some support

bicnod I used nipple shields too in the first weeks, we then managed to drop them. I don't remember how long it took, those early weeks are still very much a haze of sleep deprivation and worry. Despite the fuss sometimes made about them by bf enthusiasts they can enable you to carry on. Are you leaving your nipple bare after feeds - may feel embarrassing but you're a new mum, you're entitled to whatever makes life easier? Would you consider expressing milk if he's tugging and shaking and that is making it worse? He'd still get the benefits of breast milk, your nipple would possibly get a break and you might be able to resume feeding later. It would also allow you to get out if you could take expressed milk with you. lillymolly expressing might help with an overful breast although 6 weeks is often when things get easier anyway as the baby gets better at feeding.

We didn't have formula around at first because I felt it would be too hard not to use it.

Ultimately it is more damaging to your baby to have you resent him for causing pain than to have a bottle sometimes. It is possible to combine breast and bottle feeding but if you keep to the one feed at a time you may yet get through this.

Hi lilymolly and tatt - thanks so much for your support.

lillymolly - i really hope things get better for you... if i make it to 6 weeks i will be very happy. baby matthew is lucky to have such a dedicated mummy.

tatt - you're right that resenting oscar would be more damaging than anything else... its easy to lose perspective because its such an emotional thing.

i had (hopefully) a breakthrough today - lillymolly - it might be worth you getting checked for this as well - i cried on the HV at the baby clinic today and she suggested it might be nipple thrush. she arranged for me to see the GP straight away and he diagnosed nipple thrush for me and oral thrush for little oscar. we've been prescribed various medication (thrush capsules + cream for me and drops for oscar) and if this IS the cause of the pain it should start improving in next 3 days or so...

please keep all fingers and toes crossed... i'm getting through the feeds through gritted teeth because i feel like i have some hope that things might improve now...

i'll let you know how it goes...

thanks again for all the support x x x

would have thought the breast feeding counsellor might check on that but I guess they aren't doctors.

Hopefully between the treatment and now knowing you don't have to feed him for hours it will improve. If you can make it through this bad patch it is so much easier to take a baby out when you don't have to prepare bottles and you never have the worry about being delayed and not having food with you. It's enough hassle sorting out all the rest of their kit. And you really can get to the stage where you enjoy it, although it's hard to imagine at the moment.

hello bicnod. what a time you are having, i do hope you are doing ok.

fwiw for me it was ds getting a little bigger and so a wider gape which really sorted it, so you will probably be rewarded for sticking it out.

bicond

I have had all the treatment for thrush, and although it did help a little but, it is still sore on the right hand nipple.

I think it is getting slightly easier as ds mouth gets bigger just as fishie says, so hopefully it will start to get better soon x

Still hanging in there...just...

i've been on fluc tabs for a week, canesten cream on nipples and ds taking nystan drops and STILL in agony every feed

also started taking grapefruit seed extract tabs but nothing seems to be working... i really don't want to give up but can't carry on like this indefinitely.

seeing hv today - going to ask if there is a specialist i can see who has dealt with this before as gp doesn't seem very clued up.

argh!! i just want to feed my baby - when will this end?!! sorry - feeling very blue