Sore, scabbed nipples....I'm seriously ready to quit - Page 3

[texanatheart]

I had pain a lot that first week with ds and somewhat less pain (but sometimes pain that brought tears to my eyes!) through his first two months. Since then, it has been so rewarding. We're at 15.5 months now and going strong!

Big hugs to you. I hope that things are going well for you, whether you've continued to bf or not. It is important to know that you are doing your best no matter what decision you make.

[MilkTrance]

This is what I used:

http://www.klubhouseforkids.ca/mater...reenwidth=1024

You can usually find it at the "boutique-style" maternity stores. It smells so good and it really soothes. It is safe for baby.

Lansinoh worked okay, but when my nipples were VERY sore, it hurt to put it on, whereas this gel stuff was more liquidy so it hurt less.

I also had boiling hot showers (well, not literally, but they were hot!) and sometimes dunked my breasts in water, leaning forward, if I didn't want a shower (hurt to get into the shower -- C/S)

[aylaanne]

I'm so glad that you've gotten so much affirmation and support here. I called my mother at 1am in my first week, crying because my nipples hurt so bad and I was convinced, from my reading, that I was doing something wrong. Mom told me that she had soreness problems in the first weeks with all four of her children. My midwife, who has ten children and is pregnant with the 11th, told me that she had soreness in the first weeks with all of her kids, too. Since then, I have not talked to a single woman who said that they had absolutely pain-free nursing from the get go.

So here's what I think. I think that soreness in varying degrees at the beginning of breastfeeding is perfectly normal. I think anyone who says otherwise is lying. I got cracked nipples in my first week. At 8 days I woke up with a 103 degree fever and mastitis in my left breast. At three weeks, I pulled the last scab off of my left nipple (I know you're not supposed to, but it instinctively felt like the right thing to do, and it was) and I haven't had soreness since.

This will pass! Be strong, continue going to people who can support you when you feel your strength flagging. Your first post was days ago, hopefully you've made it this far. It will get better, you will be successful, you are doing a GREAT JOB as a mother. I don't have any suggestions that haven't already been posted, but I will say that doing a little manual expression to give my nipples a break was huge for me, as were warm compresses to soften the scabs before I nursed.

Keep us posted!

[JANmom13]

I had this problem after each of my 3 kids.
This last time FINALLY (bc of not regaining weight) the LC FINALLY advised me to try a nipple shield. I really wish before, when I complained of excruciating pain, the LC would have suggested this immediately because I was HUGELY swollen on one side, which the 3rd time actually made latching impossible. She even tried to get him to latch and he couldn't. So I would suggest a nipple shield. It made a HUGE difference, and instead of months of pain and re-injuring, I was better within a month. I kept going with the shield for a while, then at about 4 months stopped and he was fine and I was fine.

I couldn't use Lanolin, it made me worse and I was told I may have been allergic to it.


Honestly, I think it is a hormonal thing. I think the world has gotten so good at blaming latch, when honestly I was told EVERY time that my latch was "perfect", and the 2nd time was pretty much told I was dishonest when I was complaining about pain. Can you believe that? Right in the hospital, too.

Once you get past the first month or so, I think the hormones normalize a little more, although right before my period I start to feel like it's coming back but it never gets anywhere NEAR what it was postpartum.

[maggylibby]

I've been there mama!

OMG! I so feel your pain! My first baby flattened my nipples and made them bleed like crazy! I remember getting in the bath to remove scabs in order to nurse again! By the way nursing in the bath helped some too....but I know not enough! Make sure you are really shoving the whole thing in there, don't be to gentle about that, the more of the whole aereola you can get in the better. If the baby slacks off at all during nursing and moves down on your nipple remove him right away by sticking you finger in the corner of him mouth to break suction and start over. You can do this mama! If you have to for a while numb your nipple with ice right before nursing..... the latch on is always the worse....Also I don't recommend the pumping thing, I think it can just aggravate the situation....then you don't know if the pump or the baby or what! Just hang in there and make sure you do have wet diapers and that a lactation consultant checks out the babys latch....everyone told me my daughters latch was just fine, but it still hurt like hell for quite a while. Also any chance you have inverted nipples, my left side was and that made it way worse. Please feel free to ask me anything ..... I know how disappointing and painful this can be.....Kelly

[staceylibbert]

Stay tough. You can do this. This is a really annoying statement when you are in the middle of a sleep-deprived stupor and your nipples are bleeding, but you really can. Whoever said "breastfeeding is easy" had clearly either never done it or they were in the blissful third or fourth month of it and had blocked the first month out completely.

I had difficulty with both of mine. My daughter didn't latch on until she was seven weeks old. I pumped and then gave her a bottle for the first seven weeks until she FINALLY got it, and we nursed happily for a year and a half. My son, on the other hand, latched on immediately... and proceeded to gnaw my right nipple almost completely off. I had a deep laceration that was excruciating. Fortunately, I have terrific LCs at our hospital, and they helped me through my tearful fits of hysteria. All I can say is that if you hang in there, it WILL get better and it will be worth all of your pain and aggravation. As a runner, I sort of think of it as I would a race. In the middle of the race, you feel tremendous pain and your brain screams, "Stop! Why are you doing this?" but you keep going because it's what you set out to do, and you know that there's a finish line up ahead. Push through this for your baby and yourself. I can't promise that it will get better tomorrow or even next week, but I can promise that it will get better, and you will be so grateful that you stuck with it.

Good luck! Hang in there, and remember to take as much help from friends and family as you can possibly get. You can pay them back at a later time.