I hate seeing her in this much pain

[flagger]

Part of the problem may be because she can no longer do the football hold, or it may have been the position she nursed in while on vacation. (Not her normal bed, or couch), but all of the sudden Ms. Flagger nipples have split around the base. She can pump just fine but there was so much apprehension she literally had to bite the bullet (her shirt) just to attach the pump this evening. You would think after nearly six weeks in, the pain would have subsided.

We go in for a weight check (a whole nother story) this week and the nurse/pedi mentioned they knew an excellent LC.

I am not really looking for advice, but just venting. It was going so well.

[heidi_timms]

Tell Ms. Flagger I feel for her. My pain has just gone away at 9-10 weeks. I must have the nipples of steel now!

I hope she feels better!

~Heidi
Mom to Kailey Ashlin
4/27/03

[Momof3Labs]

The LC should be able to help a lot - it sounds like Cocoa has gotten sloppy with her latch and needs a little bit of retraining. Good luck.

[stillplayswithbarbies]

It does sound like the position she nursed in allowed the baby to not latch correctly. It should heal now that you are back home and can retrain the baby.

Try nursing in the side lying position, that helped me when I had splits and pain. It puts pressure on a different part and may not be as painful. Also try taking a pain reliever before nursing, giving it time to work.


...Karen
Jacob Nathaniel Feb 91
Logan Elizabeth Mar 03

[Rachels]

Worth seeing an LC!!! It made an enormous difference for us. Also, she should be checked to be sure she doesn't have thrush. Sometimes sudden pain when things used to be going well can indicate yeast.

-Rachel
Mom to Abigail Rose
5/18/02

[telewill]

I agree with Rachel...that totally happened to me...I though I had to toughen up, but I had a yeast infection with no outwards signs of it, just horrible pain.

Good luck!!!

[flagger]

> Also, she should be checked to be sure she doesn't have
>thrush. Sometimes sudden pain when things used to be going
>well can indicate yeast.

Good idea, but it is not that from what we can tell. She can see visible splits. She is already feeling better and not as apprehensive as she re-read the Sears section on BF'ng. When she gets Cocoa's lower lip open and not curled in, the pain is not there. She also noticed Cocoa's upper lip curling in as well. We do have a call in for the LC but have a weight check tomorrow and she wants to wait to set up an appointment after that.

[Rachels]

One thing that can help both with the cracks and with Cocoa's lip curling is olive oil. My LC taught me that. If she puts a little olive oil around her nipples before the baby latches on, it will be easy to flip her lip to the right position without having to unlatch her or having her pull on the nipple. Olive oil is also soothing for cracks and is easier to apply than Lansinoh, and it's perfectly safe for the baby.

-Rachel
Mom to Abigail Rose
5/18/02

[alkagift]

Yep, I was going to say that the football hold was a standby in the hospital for me and I was doing it at home until I realized that I wasn't really replicating the hold well without the hospital bed and billions of pillows. Matthew was bruising the bottom of my nipple--the huge problem, as far as I can see, with the football hold is that you really can't see the bottom of the baby's mouth. You never know what's going on below their upper lips.

FYI, my LC told me that a little curling of the upper lip(as long as it's not substantial or rubbing) is usually not a problem--the upper lip doesn't have to be perfectly flanged out to be a good latch. I've found that to be true with Matt too--it's only the bottom that gives me fits.

Allison
Mom to Matthew Clayton, 5/19/03

[mam615]

Gotta love the Sears' BFing advice. I referred to it many times with great success. If you don't already have it, I'd recommend their entire book on BFing -- "The Breastfeeding Book" -- it goes into much more detail.