Excruciating pain breastfeeding

[Cutiebunnies]

I gave birth to my lovely boy on Monday. Very soon after birth he latched on and fed well. I was determined to ensure he fed well before all the milk flooded in which he did. I thought this would help knowing the problem I had with my first 3 children. However milk came in Wed afternoon and I am in excrutiating pain whenever he feeds. It is like someone pulling 50 hairs on the end of your nipples, It makes me in agony. I don't want to give up but think I may have to although I know it should stop soon I hope. He would not settle last night but I continued to put him to the breast. My breasts hurt all the time. Blistered at the end of the nipples and some times look like they have bled a little. But he has latched on well each time. Since milk flooded in it has not been so great A lot harder to get him on and the pain doesn't help. Can any one offer any advice. Want to carry on but getting very snappy with rest of family and he is not settling now which doesn't help. Very sad as thought I had cracked it when he latched on straight afterbirth. How long do I have to put up with the agony - should I just give up because of the pain ?? It's seems so unfair!!

I sympathise. I felt really annoyed when it hurt as I'd been led to believe it didn't/shouldn't.

I found with both of mine that the pain subsided fairly quickly (can't remember exactly how long but it was quick enough for me to carry on with it). I know it's hard but could you give it a few more days? I'm sure someone will come along with better advice in a minute...

its hard when that happens sint it i remember the pain well with dd, but it didnt last long, i found it helped if i expressed some milk off before she fed so boobs werent so full and hard helped a lot.
to ease the pain a little i found the tiny tube a of nipple cream that came free in the bounty pack helped, i think it was avent but cant remmebr for certain.
the pain passed within a few days for us and hope it does for you too

and congrats on your newborn

I had that, DS was sucking far too strong and took ages to feed so I was covered in blisters that soon started to bleed, DS started to vomit my blood which I was assured he would be fine with, but every time DS woke up for a feed I could get mad at knowing that it would hurt as if somebody have put a hot iron on the nipples.

It went on for a good few weeks, I was given some parafine sort of bandages that helped a tiny bit, eventually the nipples where so bad that I was advised to give one breast a day rest to allow it to heal.... well the production went down so much that I spent the next following weeks with either baby or pump latched on trying to get it right, but it didn't so eventually, with huge sadness, I gave up.

In retrospective, I would have liked to be told to ignore all the people who thought I was a wimp as they didn't have the same problem and... most importantly, to contact a proper breastfeeding counselor who could help me with finding a way for DS to latch in the best possible position to minimise the damage such strong sucking could cause.

I suppose it won't be long before Tiktoc shows up with good advice but if she doesn't google "la leche league"

Best of luck and my heartfelt sympathy.

There is a little local anaesthetic quality to breastmilk iirc, I would second the idea of expressing a little and rubing it on before you start a feed.
The other thing is I would check for thrush, the pain I felt with that was more like glass shards being dragged throug my nipple though so not quite the same.

I really found that by the time I went for my 6 week check we had things pretty much sorted,

The other thing that isn't recommended on a long term basis but may just give you relief for a feed or two a day is nipple shields.
I believe they can muck up your milk supply if you use them long term but I am not sure that once or twice a day should count. You can get them from Boots etc.

BF isn't easy at the beginnign and when you have a family to juggle already it is so hard to work out what is best for everyone. Good on for carrying on so far!

I am sure Tiktoc will be round for better advice in a minute

Try some Lansinoh cream - bloody expensive but worth every penny. Also, get a bf counsellor to check your latch - the NCT counsellor who came to me saw the problem straight away, despite several mws telling me the latch was good.

Hang on in there!

thanks everyone for your advice and kind wishes. I'll keep trying as long as i can and feel better knowing i'm not the only one!!

Thanks

Does the pain last throughout the feed? I had terrible pains that lasted fr a few minutes at the start of every feed for the first few weeks with my of my ds's

Are you breasts really full? He might be able to get a better latch if you express a bit off before he starts to feed.

Can you get a bf counselor to check the latch, just to be 100% sure it's right?

Hope you get it all sorted.

xx

It is worst when trying to latch him on but once on, at the moment it is still painful but after a few sucks it is a little less painful.

They have been really full last couple of days but since last feed they feel a lot better, not so rock solid and lumpy.

I'll see how it goes over the weekend and then if still having problems I'll get someone to check the latching on or maybe tomorrow when I see the midwife - but he looks to be on ok, but yes you are right I should get someone to check.

Thanks

What shape is the nipple at the end of the feed? I'm concerned your latch may not be exactly right, and maybe your nipple is getting a bit crushed?

Oh, sory, missed the last message - it deffo sounds like he's getting milk. Midwives are not generally the best at checking latch, even if the mw says it's ok, I'd try to see a BF counsellor of some sort. (Anyone from NCT/BFN/ABM/LLL.)

cutie - there is no substitute for having a knowledgable person watch you feed, all the way through. It's not possible to say what might be happening from your post except to say that pain like this is not normal, and the fact it is localised to your nipple is a huge clue that attachment and positioning may need to be amended, and the baby checked for anomalies like tongue tie.

In the meantime, check baby-led attachment, laid back breastfeeding, biological nurturing...all googlable.

Hope things go better soon.

i had exactly the same problem and waited for it to get better - it didn't! i saw MW, HV, feeding support teams. noone could stop it hurting BUT they did spot a tongue tie which was what was causing his unorthodox but effective suckling action. he had the tongue cut but at 5 weeks he had done too much sucking to change his ways!
ask them to check for a tongue tie soon - could be the problem

I had dreadful pain with both dd's and unfortunately moved onto formula because the pain was too much.

It was only afterwards that I heard about nipple vasospasm, which i think I may have been affected by. I believe these are the signs (but someone more knowledgable may correct me)

Nipple changing colour (blue, then blanching)
Pain throughout a feed and when expressing
nipple sensitivity at other times (i couldn't even bear the water from the shower hitting them).

Everyone I saw, including bfc couldn't understand why I felt pain throughout the entire feed (like a saw blade across my nipples). I think it was not noticed with dd1, because my latch had been bad and I had awful blisters and cracks, dd1 had thrush (as did I) and she had a tongue tie so kept slipping off. I tried to express feed, but only managed about 6 weeks (it also hurt to express). With dd2 she latched on perfectly straight away, but I still had unbearable pain.

I just thought I'd mention it, because no-one mentioned it with me until it was too late, but I think there are things that can help (I think there is more on Kellymom.com)

Good luck, and I hope you find something that helps.