Painful nipple

[osker]

I think I had a clogged duct last week. It seemed like it.. so I got in the tub and sprayed water on it for as long as I could tolerate as hot as it could be because I had heard that it would help. It seemed to help, and also I nursed my 10mo DD as much as I could on that side.  Since then, however, it seems to be still having problems.  It seemed that I got the clog out as there had been pain farther back in my breast on the left side, and now the pain is just in the nipple.  The nipple looks like there is a white hard kernel just behind the skin in one spot. It's so painful when she nurses, and sometimes even in between.  Does this sound familiar to anyone? What do I do?

Also, she now has two teeth on the bottom and four on top. I think the top ones are moving around as she is biting a bit and seems to be feeling them move at times, so I don't know if this is part of the problem. But she only bites on this left side, the painful one.

Any help?

Thanks!

(Osker's DW)

[Thandiwe]

Hmmmm.  Any fever or signs of infection (pus, etc)?  You want to watch out for mastitis.  Have you tried spinning her around so that she's in a position where her bottom jaw is over the spot?  Sometimes if you spin babe around (even over your shoulder if necessary, silly as that seems), so that they put the most pressure on that spot, it can help to break it up.  A lot of moms get relief from cold cabbage leaves as well.  You can also put a warm compress on it, with gentle massage.

I truly wish I had more definitive advice for you!  I had a situation with my youngest where he was teething hard and had a tight lower frenulum.  This caused him to bite hard on my nipple, leaving an open wound that struggled to heal.  Once it'd start to, something would happen to split it again.  It hurt so badly, so I completely understand what you're going through!  Hopefully someone else has some better advice!

[osker]

Thanks, it turned out it was a surface crack that had gotten infected. It wasn't mastitis, but could've been if I hadn't gone to my doctor. She put me on antibiotics and it cleared up without me having to stop nursing on it (I have a friend who just had a similar issue and she was told not to nurse or pump but only manually express for a week!!!).