Healing sore nipples

[Rach8484]

We into day 6 and have had a bad latch so nipples are very sore. I’m sure I have improved my latch but it’s still sore when she feeds because of how sore they were and she feeds loads! She put on a good amount of weight in 5 days! I put cream and breast milk on them n air them when can but do find time to do that. Any other ideas? Will they ever heal if she feeding so much?

[LauraJ85]

You could try nipple shields just whilst your nipples heal and lansinoh cream is really good as you don't need to wipe it off. That first week is so hard, your doing really well x

[MissSaoPaulo]

I'm in exactly the same boat, baby's a week old today. Soooooo sore

As above, using lanolin cream and a nipple shield. Going topless as much as possible. I'm in Brazil and the advice here is to get a bit of sun on your breasts for 5 or 10 minutes to help the nipples heal - don't know how feasible that is for you? Everyone keeps telling me it gets better!! Best of luck, we've got this xxx

[Claireeeeeeeeeeeee]

They really can heal while she is feeding all the time. I had a similar problem, and they healed with just the lanolin cream applied every time. We didn't use a nipple shield and she was exclusively breastfed. She fed all the time as well, this also gets better. If you can try a different position sometimes like laid down or rugby hold then different parts of the nipple end up up being in different places in her mouth which helped me. I just wanted to say it gets so much easier and you are doing great. We are now at over a year and still breastfeeding, at 6 days in I would have never believed that.

[Blueberry16]

Cold cabbage leaves in your bra between feeds helped for me. Like to echo that you are doing awesome and it does get easier. Lots of love x

[Andysprinter]

Midwife suggested to me jelonet gauze (can buy from any pharmacy, it’s normally used for burns/wound healing) - put a bit of nipple cream on the nipple first then apply double layer of the gauze and leave it on. I used to put it on and leave it for a while before washing it off before feeding/expressing from that boob. It is amazing stuff, healed everything so quickly!

I went to a breast feeding cafe and the specialists there corrected my latch - I had my latch completely wrong so it was causing pain. Once they had shown me the right way, it took lots of practice to get baby on right every time but it really is completely pain free now 3 weeks down the line.

Midwife has referred baby to have tongue tie snipped also so perhaps ask your midwife to check for a tongue tie also as that could be affecting your baby latching on successfully.

I know exactly how it feels so I hope it gets easier for you soon.

[badgerhynes]

Oh bless you! We had the same and it was crap but don’t lose heart, they heal really fast. We went on to feed for a year. I decided to rest the worst one for a few days. I fed from the less sore side, expressed from the side that was resting and fed that milk by bottle. Even if it’s just a little to keep the supply up. I then swapped sides to rest the other one after 48 hours.

We tried nipple shields but they didn’t work for me. Make sure you’re changing your pads a lot as well, loads of rest air and nipple cream. Try with different positions for feeding too so there isn’t constant pressure on the same areas.

Keep going mamma, your doing a great job

[Kempton]

I used that purple tube of cream. Can't remember the name but it's like the go-to nipple cream. But I found that the pain definitely lessened as my baby got older and eventually feeding became painless.

[Rach8484]

Thanks everyone for kind words it’s slowly getting better with using cream n airing them out hoping next few days be pain free x