Broken blood vessels in nips?

[mkpgoddess]

Hi all,

My 5.5 month old DD is EBF, but due to me being back at work, she takes pumped BM from a bottle. Today during a pumping session, I noticed purple lines in my nipples and when I stretch them out a bit, the lines are red and look like burst blood vessels or rug burn for a lack of other terminology. This evening I noticed that it is starting to hurt when she feeds, like those areas of the nipples are bruised.

Can anyone speak to this? What could be causing it and is there anything I should do to get them to heal or just keep on keeping on? It's not making feeding horrible, just uncomfortable...

TIA!

[Erin77]

Are your horns (flanges) the right size? Are you either using Lasinoh or olive oil in them when you pump? I had a similar problem with I was using too-small flanges- they were kind of pinching my tissue and giving me broken capillaries and bruising. Sizing up and using the lanolin solved my problem.

[mkpgoddess]

Huh...well, I use the 27's (the pump comes with 24's) and I tried the 30's back in the beginning when Cate was a newborn and managed to get more milk down the front of me than in the bottle so I assumed they were too big. Is it possible to "outgrow" horn sizes? Also, I haven't used anything, Lansinoh or olive oil, because I was worried that it would get mixed in with the milk and make a mess on my clothes. Talk to me about this?