nipple damage

[minxs]

Hi Ladies,
My DS has damaged my nipples a while ago, and they just don't seem to heal. The first 3 mo of BF went absolutely fine, but then we introduced the bottle and he started to chomp on things (including me). I developed some little cracks. He is now in the phase that he is constantly distracted and jerks around a lot (while clamping down on the nipple). In addition he went through a growth spurt and was nursing constantly. As a result the cracks did not heal, but expanded (big and bleeding). He stopped chomping on me, but the cracks don't seem to get any better (it has been 3 weeks now)

I try to feed him at the most quiet places in the house or when he is asleep so he won't jerk. I only feed him in the cradle position, because that seems to be the least distractive to him. I only feed him from the least damaged breast, and pump from the other one. He does not take a bottle at home, so that will go to the day care stash.
I use lots of lanolin and use the breast therapy patches from ameda, medela and lanisoh. I have removed the inserts in the horn from my pump to make sure there is no friction. I reduced pumping time by using hand compression to speed up things.
The culture does not show yeast (i work in a lab) and the pain lessens the longer he eats, which indicates a good latch.

I EN my DS1 and never had these problems
any suggestions to help my poor nipples ?

TIA

[Nipple_nectar]

Make sure you are using lanolin before and after each pumping session. For long term pain management, I highly recommend the silverette, a pair of pure silver cups that you literally place on the nipples between sessions, they are like magic! You can read more here: www.breastfeedingheaven.com

You can also try a nursing necklace to minimize the distraction, clamping down and pulling off. Here is a pic: http://www.breastfeeding.com/social/listing/view/id_6/title_nursing-necklaces/

How old is your baby? Sounds like baby may be teething on you as well. Make sure you provide plenty of opportunity to gnaw, I give my LO frozen fruit to gnaw on for a minimum of twenty minutes prior to any nursing session, we also use Hylands teething tabs to help with teething pain.