Severe Nipple Pain

[ArcticRose]

I have a beautiful 10 month old who is a champion nurser. I produce plenty of milk and love nursing.. most of the time.

About once a month (give or take) I experience severe nipple pain in my left nipple. it usually lasts a few days and then gradually gets better. It's a knife like pain in the nipple itself, worse when she latches, and especially bad when she pulls off without releasing. (ouch) It feels like I have a needle stuck in my nipple.

The nipple looks fine. There is no swelling or redness. If I look closely there is a tiny white spot right over one of the little holes milk comes out of. It looks like dead skin, or a callous, has developed over the hole. It does NOT look like a blister. It is always the same spot.

If I use a needle or tweezers to try to reopen the hole I can sometimes get some relief... after a while.

Why does this happen??? What can I do to prevent it? I am pretty pain tolerant, but this is killing me. When she latches on unexpectedly (like while she is napping in my arms or while we are both sleeping) I jump and tense up and upset her. Sometimes I yelp. It's worse than when she nips me with her new teeth.

Just to get this out of the way, I really don't think it's thrush, the symptoms just don't fit.

I don't have any Dr. visits planned in the near future, so any help or advice anyone can give me would be appreciated!

[ewe+lamb]

Sounds like a bleb, a small block right at the nipple, try hot hot hot compresses and massage, the compresses need to be as hot as you can stand without burning and then let baby nurse after, if it's always in the same place etc just be careful of positioning etc - this is the age where the nurslings start to do gynastics etc when attached!! So just make sure that baby is well positioned and the latch isn't getting too lazy! Good luck

[ArcticRose]

Thanks for the reply.

This may be tmi, but... after I read your post this morning I did a search for "blebs" and found all kinds of info. I found one site that recommended using tea bags (regular black tea, caffeinated) so I combined that with your advice and made myself a cup of tea, then used the hot tea bag as a compress.. then (and this is where the tmi part comes in) I put it back in the tea while DD nursed. When she was done I re-applied the still warm tea bag. Then I drank the tea, lol.

This seems to have done the trick! I'm still sore, but the sharp pain has decreased.

I know DD's latch has gotten lazy, but I'm not sure how to correct it, especially since the worst is at night when I am only half awake at best.

Thanks again for the reply!

[ewe+lamb]

Great - delighted that the tea bags did the trick - hope that the tea was good!! lol, so for making sure dd is in a good position - go back to how you would nurse if she was a newborn, ear, shoulder and hip in a straight line, tummy to tummy and pull her in tight - that should do the trick. Wonderful that the bleb is going away