Painful breastfeeding

[Daisysimply]

I’ve been breastfeeding my daughter for 13 months but for the past couple of weeks it has become so painful. I’ve got cuts all round both nipples from her teeth which feel so sore every time she nurses. She isn’t biting as such but I think she must be digging her teeth in when she’s feeding. Because she feeds frequently the cuts aren’t having chance to heal so it’s just constantly sore and painful when I feed her. Does anyone please have any tips of how to firstly heal the cuts but also how to stop it being so painful. I really don’t want to stop feeding her just yet.

Ah op that sounds tough. My wee one is the same age and sometimes when he's got a bit of a cold or stuffy nose he doesn't latch as well and I'll feel his teeth. When I do I take him off straight away, sign 'sore' and then relatch him in a new position until it feels right. Weirdly it's always on one side more than the other. We're just down to 3 feeds a day so if it's really bad I would feed on one less painful side for a bit and hand express the other. But if you're still feeding a lot you may want to pump that side instead.

So I think you start by trying to work out the cause if its a cold/teething and clear their nose, maybe give some calpol ahead of a feed, make sure you're in a really comfy position together where she's well supported right to her feet and see if that helps. Is she feeding more for comfort or because she's hungry in which case I'd reduce the amount you're offering to give yourself a chance to heal for a day or two.

Silver cups are the best for healing imo and I found the coco mama nipple balm helped a lot but don't use them together. If it's really bad you could maybe pump for a bit to reduce the amount you're having to feed to give yourself a chance to heal or maybe consider nipple shields if it's really painful.

Has she just got her teeth through recently?

She was properly biting me a few weeks ago every time I fed her and this lasted about a week. Round the same time she had a cold so I put it down to that and the biting did stop, however feeding is still so sore and she’s giving me cuts still. I’m pretty sure it’s down to teething. She’s got 2 teeth cutting through at the bottom which I can see so I should think it’s due to that. Just find it strange as she’s had teeth since she was 6 months. The 2 that are cutting through now will be her 9th and 10th tooth so not sure why it’s painful this time round when teething but haven’t had issues before.

She isn’t great with feeding from cups/ bottles but I think I’ll have to try this again as it’s getting really sore. I’ve cut back her feeds a lot, she definitely fed a lot for comfort and instead of wanting food so I’m making sure to only breastfeed her now unless she really needs to. She has only fed 4 times during today but feeds a lot throughout the night still.

Thank you for the advice, I will try these methods out.