Please help my nipples heal!

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Am bfing DD2 (6 weeks). All was going relatively well (am not a 'natural' feeder so always look pretty cackhanded) but in the past couple of days I've noticed what look like holes on each nipple - no blood is coming out but they are open and sore.

I've been liberally using Lansinoh, rubbed milk in after a feed and spent most of the morning bra-less to let the air get to them as well as taken paracetamol but these holes seem to be getting bigger, not smaller

I had a torrid time feeding DD1 and ended up switching to ff when she was only a few weeks old and am desperate to avoid it happening this time round. With her I was told to express to allow my nipples to heal but after a week of expressing they were still as bad as before and she had got too used to a bottle to be bothered making an effort to bf so I really don't want to go down that route again if possible.

Any advice?

I would suggest getting your latch looked at by a professional if you can - it could be that your baby's not quite positioned correctly causing a blister. If you can get the latch sorted then it might help it heal. When she's latched on, is she taking a good amount of the areola into her mouth, and is the nipple pointing towards the roof of her mouth? If there's a bf support group near you then they should be able to help you out.

I'd also get it looked at by your GP or HV - just to make sure there's no infection there.

Its very hard sometimes but fairplay to you your doing a great job
id say go topless as much possible stick with the lansinoh and when you do put on your top and bra use lansinoh breast pads (i found them the best and have tried them all!) to make sure your dry at all times. Also if its very painful to feed nipple shields might help? I found them very big for my ds1's mouth but they did help while i was very sore. Can you go along to any breastfeeding clinics/groups to maybe get some help with positions? I know for a fact i couldnt have continued bf had i not gotten advice on my positions. All the best hope it eases for you

I know it's silly but I'm a bit wary of bfing groups after I used the hospital group for DD1 and it still went wrong - they recommended nipple shields to start with and then expressing. I should give LLL or NCT a go before it gets too late.

One of my nipples is very inverted and I was always convinced that this was a major problem but I saw a MW 5 days after DD2 was born who told me to forget everything that I had been told and that it was just a question of the latch - she taught me the hamburger hold (!). Since then, feeding DD2 has been a dream compared to DD1, up until these past couple of days. I guess I could try going back to the shields for a couple of days to see if they'll heal a bit.

I've got my postnatal check this week so I will get the GP to have a quick look as well to see if there is anything else....

I've never heard of the hamburger hold, but it sounds like my sort of thing . Could you perhaps try a different hold for a day or two so that she's got a different part of your nipple in her mouth, to give the sore bits a chance to heal?

I'm sorry you had a crap experience at the hospital bf group, but why not see if there's a community one local to you? Ours has been a godsend for me at times.

Hope you get it sorted

They now recomend moist wound healing for craked nipple's
There is a link on this website.
www.breastfeedingnetwork.org.uk/leaflets-and-publications.html

Think of it like this your craked nipple is like a river bed the more it drys out the bigger the crak gets.

This is the link to find your local BFN cafe.
www.breastfeedingnetwork.org.uk/support-centres.html
But if it is craked nipples then it's probably latch and you need to see a BF counciler to sort it out. They are really well train.

You could try the
NCT or LLL as well as they may have some one closer to you if BFN doesn't.

Good luck.

I used these for a few days and worked on my latch. They worked well and it healed quickly - I no longer curled my toes in pain or fed DD milk and blood..

Good luck, you are doing great to keep going

If you cover with jelonet between feeds this will aid healing, drying it out can make it much worse as MigGril says.

you can buy it from any chemist

I had an evil crack that simply didn't heal until I did this. When it dried out the whole thing opened up from the bottom every time I latched him on.

Thanks for all your tips - I'm going to go to a playgroup this morning that a trained bf counsellor attends and get her to watch me feed if DD2 can hold on until we get there and keep slathering on lansinoh and I'll get some jelonet. It hasn't been as painful the last few feeds so hopefully it was just that I was getting lax with the latch and I panicked a bit following my history with DD1...

Tiger - I'd never heard of the hamburger hold either but it really is a case of scrunching my boob up like it was a hamburger (I only have to do it on the dodgy-shaped side) and that seems to make it wasier for DD2 to latch.

I had these with DS and was told by midwife that they weren't healing because I had thrush, have you had that checked out? Once the thrush had gone new skin just grew over the holes and they were totally gone in 2 weeks.

Oh poor you

I used these breast shells for a stubborn crack that was taking ages to heal. They're a good alternative to breast pads which stick to the nipple or walking round with boobs out all day which is a tad impractical.

I was also told that nipples heal from the inside out so can appear to be getting worse when they are in fact getting better. Not sure how true this is but it helped me to hang on in there.

Good luck x

I second jelonet - I've just had the identical problem to you and now at nearly 8 weeks they are completely healed

Put it on religiously after each feed + natural fibre breast pads + biofem (like lansinoh, but lanolin free). slept topless at night on a towel to get air to them

also corrected latch. took about 10 days to heal completely. used ibuprofen to cope with pain (was using it anyway for cs pain relief)

I feel your pain - good luck, it's well worth it. I am not a natural either, gave up at 2 weeks with DD and took a lot of determination this time

I had the same thing too, Looked like huge crevasses, they started to heal after 6 weeks.
I was treated for thrush, although GP not sure I had it. So not sure if the daktarin cream helped. expressing didn't help me either.
I did stop using lansinoh around this time and aired the nipples as much as I could.
I haven't really changed the hold/latch so think it was just my nipples getting used to being stretched and pulled!!!

BF got soooo much better when they started to heal. It will go - good luck and well done for BF.

I used Avent nipple shields until mine healed, they were excellent.

Quick update - thanks Tiger and Cinnamon for your suggestions re infection. Had our postnatal check this morning and GP says it is thrush and has prescribed cream for me and drops for DD2 so hopefully we'll be right as rain in no time (and I can't tell you how happy I am that this time round he ticked the 'breastfeeding totally' box as it crushed me when I had DD1 and had to keep telling people I'd given up bf her )

I second Siamesecatwoman. I got mine from Breastfeeding Heaven and they were cheaper, but I'm not sure they are in stock right now. Best money I ever spent though! can't recommend them enough and mine literally worked in under 24 hours! went to bed with cracked nipples, woke up without!

Glad you've found a reason for it, just another thing- I had a cream and drops to start with and nothing changed, they then put us on Daktarin cream and drops which worked very quicky so if you don't find there's any improvement make sure you go back!