painful left nipple

[Nina83]

I just had my baby and am breast feeding.
When she latches on to the right breast it tingles just a bit at first, but the left breast/nipple is so painful, even when she doesn't feed.
It really hurts in the begining when she latches on, it almost brings me to tears, but after a few suckles it's bearable.
Could she be latching on correctly on the right side but not the left?
My nipple isn't red more than usual or anything, what could it be?

 

[Mrs Dragonfly]

It sounds similar to what I had going on with my right nipple. It was so painful whenever I breastfed from my right breast, I saw a lactation consultant and we figured out that she was latching poorly. It's still sometimes hit or miss but we're getting better about it.

 

[reeshy]

It sounds like a bad latch to me or that you are healing from an incident when the baby had a bad latch. I had a much better latch (though I didn't know it) on one side. I saw two lactation consultants and they initially told me that my latch was good on both sides. Then after three weeks of agony and multiple lactation consultant visits, one of them realized it looked like a good latch from the outside but that it wasn't all good with how deep she was latching. But by then, that side was in so much pain that she suggested I just pump on that side for three days. I did that which let that side heal. Once it healed and I was more experienced with how it should feel, I was able to correct her latch myself. (I corrected it by basically getting as much nipple/areola as I could smash into her mouth. The way I was latching before was not quite deep enough even though it seemed like a lot to me and my consultants.)

 

[busytulip]

I experienced a similar problem and it definitely brought me to tears. I agree with everything that Reeshy said. Two of the things that helped me were to apply nipple butter (I used Earth mama angel baby) and then I changed my hold to the football hold. It helped give me more control so that I could help her get a nice deep latch. Hope the pain starts to ease up for you!

 

[Nina83]

Sometimes it's better than others, but I've started using more cream, hope that does the trick.
I'm also going to go to a lactation consultant, maybe even Sunday. Besides helping out with the BF it will be nice to get out!