[ckhagen]

I've never had this problem before and it's totally freaking me out!
With DS1 my nipples were sore for maybe 4 days during the first week, just adjusting.

This time, it's been 7 weeks and they hurt like hell! They went through a stage of being bright pink/red and swollen, then sort of shiny like new skin, then little layers of dry skin peeling off (like a sunburn), and now they're really light in color because it's almost like I barely have any skin left.

We can't seem to figure it out at LLL, but I'm leaning toward a really strong suck and he's literally sucking my skin raw. His latch looks fine to me. I can see his top lip, bottom lip etc... AFAIK he's getting enough of it in his mouth. He does make that tounge noise though, but I can't stop that. I've tried every position and I'm using Lansinoh (I never did before or with DS1). Latching on his seriously painful. My nipples are extremely sore to the touch.

HELP!!!!
What haven't I thought of? What do I do?

:

 

[Erinz]

Candice -
I'm a total amateur at breastfeeding (1 month today!) and have the same problem but my LC diagnosed us with having thrush. Your sypmtoms sound like a classic case of thrush from all that I have read. One thing I didn't realize is that your baby doesn't have to have any symptoms in order for it to be present. A lot of people assume they don't have it because there aren't white cheesy patches in the baby's mouth (mine doesn't have any). I"m sure the people at LLL would have thought of this already but I just wanted to throw it out there as a maybe....
OK off to see if I can find out some more help on getting rid of thrush because I dread the next latch, serious tear inducting stuff.

: My son has a very agressive latch too.

I hope you feel better.

Erin

 

[TurboClaudia]

thrush definitely sounds like a possibility.

gentian violet (see www.drjacknewman.com for more info and instructions) and liquid citricidal grapefruit seed extract (see www.drjaygordon.com for more info and instructions) are two of the most effective cures and don't require a prescription and are minimally invasive.

also, eliminate all refined sugars from your diet and try to eliminate or at least severely reduce any white flour products (baked goods, etc.). wash your nursing bras, any resuable breast pads you may be using and any clothing that comes in contact with your nipples in hot water daily, using a 1/4 of white vinegar in the rinse cycle. if using disposable breast pads, change them at least once a day. you can use a 1:1 water: white vinegar solution to wipe down any surfaces that might come in contact with your breastmilk, as well. candida yeast that causes thrush is very hardy and can survive hot water sometimes but doesn't like the environment of vinegar.

sending you pain-free nursing vibes...

~claudia

 

[ckhagen]

Hmm... Well, we had kind of ruled out thrush because the only symptom I have is localized nipple pain and the patch of shiny new skin in an irregular shape on my nipple and part of the areola. Like your babe, Erin, mine has no thrush symptoms, no rash, no white patches, etc...

Claudia, I went ahead and got some GSE this morning and started with that. I'm going to treat it as thrush and see what happens. I have been washing my bras in hot vinegar water for about a week now, just in case. I can't find GV. Our Wal-Mart, of all places, used to carry it, but discontinued it and I gave my only bottle away to a friend who had severe thrush about a year ago! I've been to every HFS and pharmacy in the area. The last one I went to though... the woman working in the store said she's pretty sure the pharmacist has some in the back, but it was after 11pm and the pharmacy was closed

I'll try again tomorrow.

I'm starting to wonder what caused this. My first birth was a section during which I had copious amounts of antibiotics and I never had any issues.

This one, I had no antibiotics. I've never in my life had a yeast infection. But, at the end of the pregnancy I caught a mild virus from my son and it apparently seriously messed up my gut. I had to basically live on lactobacillis tabs for over a month to keep from having serious diarreah. So, I'm wondering if maybe my gut is still messed up and the lack of lactob is still a factor and presenting itself as thrush.

Thanks for the advice! I'm hoping this works and SOON!

 

[TurboClaudia]

when i had thrush the first time, the only symptom i had was pain at nursings late in the day. my nips have always had a pinkish look to them since i am pretty fair/pinkish skinned, so the pinkish factor didn't really seem relevant. our son only had a faint whitish cast in his mouth. oh, and i had strange cravings for sweet stuff and baked goods after every meal, which is a huge marker for yeast imbalance in the body. so if you have that too, thrush is the likely culprit.

we used gentian violet the first time to treat it and it took about 3 days for me to feel relief from symptoms and 5 days before i felt like that was enough treatment. the second time we had it, i used the gentian violet but it was not helping at day 3, so i switched to grapefruit seed extract and i felt symptom relief in 1.5 days! we also used the grapefruit see extract on our son's bum rash a few times and it helped it immensely in just a short period of time.

sending you more pain free nursing vibes...

~claudia