Major pain and cracked nipples... at 15 months?

[ibis]

My son is 15 months and now only nursing 2 times a day, rarely 3 times. Usually these two times are during the night, around 10pm and 4am. I don't want to wean him before he's ready, but in the past week my nipples are so painful, cracked and bleeding, I wonder if I might "accidentally" wean by not being able to make it through his nursing sessions! I'm back to putting lanolin on and wearing breast pads as if I have a newborn.

Last time at the 4 am feeding I tried to let him nurse but it hurt so bad I had to stop him after a couple of seconds... he protested briefly but then went back to sleep. I woke up with blood on my tshirt! Eek. It's also hard for me to fall back to sleep after nursing because the pain lingers for a long time. It may be due to teething but he has about 10 teeth now so that's nothing new. It may be my own sensitivity due to PMS. But it's reallly painful. Thoughts? Should I stick with it somehow or gently nudge toward weaning if he can do without? 

[MelW]

I had an episode of badly cracked nipples when my oldest DD was about 20 months old. With teething pain her night nursing latch was really bad, and the comfort nursing at night really did it.

Things that helped:

Treating the teething pain

Not nursing side-lying (exhausting, but worth it)- attempted but failed at night weaning, but we didn't nurse in bed for a couple of weeks and cut down on night nursing after that

Cutting down on comfort nursing

Craniosacral therapy to help her latch

Her latch got better, and we continued nursing until a little while after her third birthday. Her side-lying latch had never been great, and the more teeth she had the worse it got. So I nudged toward weaning, but without a goal of complete weaning. I also had one nipple worse than the other, so did a bit of expressing from the sore side and only nursing on one side for a day or two.

HTH- good luck!!

[McGucks]

Oh, mama, that sounds awful Is there any chance you have a yeast infection or something on your nipples?  You shouldn't have to just live with this kind of thing.  Do you have a LLL leader or lactation consultant you could talk to?  I am so sorry and hope it gets better SOON.

[ibis]

Hmm, the craniosacral therapy idea is interesting. I think it is related to teething, and maybe to side-lying... I'll see if I can nurse sitting up in bed tonight.

I do go to LLL once a month... hopefully I won't still have this issue in two weeks but if I do I'll mention it there. The past few nights he's only nursed once/night by his own choice so having 24 hrs to "rest" is also helping a little.