I Can't Believe You Are Still Nursing!

by Tara

Tara's story is much like a story previously posted on Breastfeeding.com called "Why Aren't They Healing" by Shandra.

Tara begins: Shanda's story is very much like my own. I had open sores on both nipples that developed when my daughter was about 2 weeks old. My best guess is that we had a bad latch in those early weeks that created some major trauma, which was irritated every time my daughter ate. And my daughter wasn't getting enough milk because she wasn't emptying the breast correctly despite all the sucking.

By two months, I had tried everything imaginable: weeks of pumping and weeks of no pumping; going topless to keep my breasts dry and using "soothies" to keep them moist; antibiotics, anti-fungal, and anti-yeast medications. I wasn't given that many drugs giving birth to my daughter!

I tried rolling the nipples and pushing back around them to make it easier for her to latch on. The silicone shields didn't help me because my daughter got confused by them and then just bit down on them with my nipples inside! I can't tell you how many times I heard someone say, "I can't believe you're still nursing" and "if this isn't healed in a week, you need to see someone again."

Like Shanda, I found plenty of advice for healing sore nipples, but nothing about the gaping wounds I was experiencing. Even a couple of visits to a great lactation consultant to fix the latch didn't really help me heal, although it did wonders for the pain!

What finally worked for me was pumping, taking acidophilus (eating yogurt), and using a prescription antibiotic ointment to keep the wounds moist so they wouldn't scab over between feedings. I pumped almost every feeding for almost two weeks, only allowing my daughter to nurse once a day or every other day. I wanted my daughter to nurse just often enough to remember how, and I started this around six weeks when breastfeeding was pretty well established-despite the pain.

I was warned that the pump would actually irritate the nipples also, since it uses dry suction rather than the wet massage of a baby's tongue. And it did... but less so than my daughter's thrusting tongue. I would tilt the pump back toward me at first to collect a little milk in the flange and get the nipples nice and wet, which helped some.

Once the wounds started to heal, I began nursing more often, tilting the sore part of the nipple toward my daughter's cheek to keep it away from her tongue. Of course, by this time, she was nearly two months old and much better at nursing. So then I spent two more weeks not pumping at all to heal from "that" trauma.

Now, I am finally healed and have a happy healthy 14-pound, four month old who takes both bottle and breast without hesitation.

I just wanted to share what worked for me in the hopes that it may be helpful to others in the same situation.