Still sore after 4 weeks

[chezababy]

When can I expect my nipples to feel better? They are still quite sore after 4 weeks. I've been lucky in that they haven't cracked or anything but I still catch my breath when he latches. I use a nipple cream already. Is it normal to still be sore? He does feed a lot.

 

[amy2015]

Have you spoken to a LC about your latch?

For me, several LCs said that my baby's latch looked good from the outside, but I knew she was latching shallow because my nipple was misshapen. A change in position really helped me.

Are you only hurting during the initial latch and not while baby is nursing? You may just have a painful letdown?

 

[RaquelDee]

It took about six weeks for my nipples to stop feeling sore. I kept thinking something was wrong with the latch, but it was just that my nipples needed to toughen up. Some babies can suck really hard, mine has on occasion started sucking on my shoulder or the side of my boob, and it's really painful, so evidently my nipples were taking a fair bit of punishment. The plus side of having a vacuum cleaner babe is that once you've worked through the pain and have everything established, feeding tends to be pretty quick.

 

[noon_child]

When babies are small, the initial latch (while they try to draw the nipple to the back of their mouth) can feel painful because it is getting sucked and squashed and pulled. Once baby is actively feeding this pain should go away because the nipple is no longer rubbing against anything, it is right at the back under the soft palate (not under he hard palate which is where rubbing usually causes cracks). Of course early on your nipples are very sensitive due to hormonal changes (have you tried towel drying yourself in the early days - ouch, I wanted nothing touching me) so everything is magnified. It isn't so much that your nipples toughen up (otherwise we'd see callouses like on our feet) but that as baby grows and can open their mouth wider, it takes less messing around to get the nipple to the back of the mouth, plus your nipples stop being so sensitive as hormones even out (you will towel dry yourself again!).

If the pain lasts longer than the initial 20 or 30 seconds, then it needs investigating. If your nipples are misshapen after feeds (squashed, angled etc.) then it needs investigating.

 

[chezababy]

Thank you ladies you've been very helpful. No the pain doesn't last. It's normally just the first few sucks. His latch seems fine and my nipples aren't misshapen. I haven't seen a lc but I did with my dd because she wouldn't latch (never did so we didn't go throw the painful stage).

 

[BrittRashel]

Have you tried different positions? Maybe some of the natural breastfeeding positions? They are supposed to help newborns to latch more deeply to avoid a lot of pain. I found the videos on this youtube channel most instructive: https://www.youtube.com/user/NancyMohrbacher

 

[slammerkin]

I had pretty similar pain - no nipple trauma, but still pain. It started to get better in the 5th week and just got better and better. My daughter has an extremely high palate and the more she grew I think the more she was able to open wide and get my nipple further back. I think early on it was getting pressed up against her hard palate instead of going back to the soft palate. Sort of laid back nursing with her tummy-to-tummy with me and having her head tilted pretty far back really helped to get a deeper latch.