Got sore nipples?  Feel like ‘sore’ is a complete understatement?  Anxiety can take a hold of you when you have pain during feeding.  Shoulders down and breath deeply – ask someone to gently massage your shoulders to relax you as much as possible.

Pain while breastfeeding is a reason given by many women for choosing not to breastfeed.  Sore nipples can be caused by a number of things, so ensure that you identify what the cause is in order to properly treat it.

Incorrect latching:

• It is so important to focus on positioning yourself and baby properly and getting good latch (baby’s mouth on the breast).  Without a correct latch, baby’s tongue squashes your nipple against the hard roof of their mouth.  This can cause pain and damage.
• Refresh your memory on good positioning and latching.  Later, when you are more experienced you will be able to feed any which way (cross legged sitting on the beach, relaxing in bed, or running for the phone even!) but for now you and baby need to concentrate on good technique.
• When baby first latches, count to 10 or 20 and by then any pain should have passed.  If you still have pain and repositioning is not helping, seek out further advice and support from your midwife, Well Child provider, childbirth educator, La Leche League, friends or family (who are successful breastfeeders – you want people to support you to overcome your challenges not offer to take baby and give them a bottle), or a lactation consultant.
• To relatch, take baby off the breast by inserting your little finger into their mouth and breaking the seal.  Never just pull baby off; their suction is remarkably strong and you’ll hurt yourself a lot!
• You may also like to check baby’s frenulum (the little bit of skin that catches the tongue to the bottom of your mouth).  Some babies have a tight frenulum which can restrict their ability to lift their tongue, poke their tongue out, and latch to breastfeed effectively.  One sign of this is a slightly heart shaped tip of the tongue.  You can ask your midwife to check for this.

• Soothe your sore nipples with a squirt of breastmilk or a nipple cream.  You may like to use a lanolin based nipple cream or if you have concerns about wool allergy, another natural nipple cream.   Use a plant based breast poultice for healing and soothing.
  • There are a number of devices like nipple shields and nipple shells that can assist in resolving some breastfeeding issues.  However, these can have an impact on the way baby latches and on your milk supply and should only be used short term in most cases so do seek advice from your midwife or lactation consultant before using these.

Thrush:

• We all have yeast in our bodies, but sometimes things get a bit out of balance and it can turn into an infection.  Vaginal thrush…  burning, itching, generally wanting to fidget around in your pants – hmmm not the best of feelings!  The same bacterium can become rife on your nipples and in baby’s mouth, which means when you are breastfeeding, you may infect her and she may infect you, over and over.
• This means that both your baby and you will need treatment or you will simply reinfect each other again.  It may present as sore nipples both during and after a feed, pinky flaky skin or white spots on your nipples, or white spots in baby’s mouth that don’t go away when wiped (not to be confused with milky bits left in her mouth that can wipe off).

• To treat thrush, you can get medication from your GP or pharmacist, but diet changes (eating acidophilus yoghurt and reducing refined sugars) can help.  You may also like to try swabbing the insides of baby’s cheeks with baking soda and water (one teaspoon baking soda mixed in one cup of cooled boiled water) four times a day, and bathing your nipples with this solution after each breastfeed.  Baby might also need treatment for thrush on their bottom.

Raynaud’s condition:

• This is also known as vasospasm or blanched nipple.  It presents as white blanching of parts of your nipples and pain with it.  You may notice it more when you are cold.
• You can take medication for this, but as a first stop, focus on keeping your breasts warm.
• Some ideas on staying warm while feeding…  Wear layers of clothing and have proper breastfeeding tops so you can keep the maximum of skin covered when feeding.  At night when you feed, as soon as baby is finished, pull your top down and hug a heat pack or warm body to you.  Try specialist breast heat packs made to fit inside your bra.

You can also experience breast soreness due to breast engorgement, blocked milk ducts, and mastitis.

Share with us what made the difference for you in overcoming sore nipples to breastfeed successfully.