Calling breastfeeding experts - stupid question

[makedoandmend]

My 13mo dd has gnawed my nipple a bit and it's now got a yellow crust and looking a bit poorly. Had been painful for a while but I think that it's constantly having her teeth reopen the wound.

Haven't fed on it since yesterday morning and went to see the GP this morning who said 'ugh' but just advised me to stop feeding on that side and to rub lansinoh cream on it until it's had a chance to heal.

So the stupid question is - would it matter if I didn't express from the side she's not feeding on? Would my milk dry up? I'm only feeding twice a day now - sometimes just once from each breast.

Would like to stop soonish as it's just too much with her teeth but she won't take other milk so I'm loathe to stop.

My friend is lending me a hand pump tonight so I can express - but do I need to?

If you are thinking about stopping you could do what I've done and stop feeding from one side? I seem to have only been feeding DD on the right side for a month now.

I'm no expert btw!

makedo - I have a dd who is also 13 months and have been having similar issues as her latch seems to have disimproved. She has loads of teeth and is teething again which doesn't help.

I co-sleep and tend to feed her on one side only most of the time. It doesn't seem to make any difference to her at all.

Recently I only fed from the same side for about 4 days in a row and the breast she wasn't feeding from got a little sore but a quick feed sorted it out.

Keep the pump handy and if you get uncomfortable you could express a little.

Hope you feel better soon.

I'll maybe leave it a couple of days then - it's a pain it's happened on her favourite side but that's probably why she's gnawed it raw in the first place...

Thanks for the reassurance - i was worried that I'd get some horrible blockage or the like...

i had this. turn her on to her other side / or slide her across so rugby hold rather than cradle. then her teeth will be facing other way.

how surprising for poor babies with weird hard teeth in their mouth. but they must get used to them very quickly.

Thanks fishie - I'd actually started holding her rugby style as this keeps the dreaded top teeth off - but I obviously started doing it too late...