Ouch! - again

~Roo'sMama~ wrote: Lets see I had what - about a month of not-painful nursing? Just when I get all my problems solved, they start up again.

Andrew is clamping down and yanking himself off - he does it so quick I can't stop him. Not that I know how I would stop it... it hurts so bad! And as a result my nipples are very sore again, and getting cracked. I've been using the Gerber Breast Therapy moisturizing balm because lanolin never seemed to help.. but this doesn't seem to be doing much good either.

I think sometimes the reason he's pulling off is teething, but half the time he just yanks himself off to look at me and grin. Somehow I think if his gums were bothering him he wouldn't be smiling at me.

Sorry I just had to vent.

JAYMESMOM replied: Jayme was little when she started this to but we made it thru up to 18 months. I would pop her off my nipple if she bit me and sit her up for a few. If she let go and then wanted to latch again I would sit her up and make her wait a few minutes. She realized real fast that if she wanted to eat she couldn't do that. It only took a few times.

Hang in there.

six_kids_at_28 replied: Awwww I HATED when that happened

But hang in there! How long are you planning to nurse him for?

*Diana* replied: When Natalie started doing that I went and bought some Lanolin. It worked really good and my nipples havent been soar since.

Alot of people say breastmilk works.. (?) I havent tried it.. but its worth a shot!

~Roo'sMama~ replied:

I went through 3 tubes of Lansinoh lanolin the first 3 months of BF'ing and it didn't really help.

moped replied: This won't be much help but I have heard to use any lotion sparingly to toughen them up - and I never used anything and after a few days things got better and they were never sore again - I a m sorry Sara!

huggybugboy replied: I'm sorry! Miles did this for a little while but it didnt last long. I hope you two get through it! I screamed a couple of times which scared him (& maybe got him to stop). Good luck!

kellibellisdillybear replied: Dylan also had a good time with the suck and pop, probably about the same age. I think they just realize they can do it, because he used to laugh at me when he would. it didn't last long for us. when I stated nursing, the l.c. told me to use cold wet decaf tea bags to sooth my nipples, it worked really well, but it will stain it you get it on fabric, so be careful. it was the only thing that gave me immediate relief.

~Roo'sMama~ replied:
Hmm that's an interesting suggestion. I might have to give it a try. He's not yanking off quite as much as he was, but I'm still really sore.

coasterqueen replied: I wish I had some more advice for you. The links I've given to you in the past and suggesting to see a LC is about all I can help.

Megan has been doing the on and off thing and she thinks it's funny. Course she's not really hurting my nips so it's not too much of a problem for me.

Are they sore all the time? Have you noticed a pattern in your soreness? I.E. Like the are sore for a week or two then not sore for awhile, then the pattern starts all over again?

~Roo'sMama~ replied:
I haven't really noticed a pattern, but I may not have been paying close enough attention. All I know is, everything had healed up, and I was doing fine and now I'm sore again.

Actually now that I think about it, I was starting to get sore when I'd feed Andrew a couple of weeks ago, before he started pulling off so much - the pulling off just made it a whole lot worse.

I don't know if his latch is bad again or if it's something else - they are not sore ALL of the time, but most of the time. It hurts while I'm feeding him, and for awhile after, and sometimes it will just start randomly hurting for no reason. Something else that's weird is my nipples have been itchy? I'm so confused. I'm going to go back and read all the links you gave me before - maybe I'll find something in them.

5littleladies replied: Hmm....that sounds kind of like my thrush Sara-Sara. I hope not though. That would suck!

coasterqueen replied: Yeppers! Sounds like thrush

Have you or Roo taken any antibiotics at all? Have you eaten a lot of sugar recently?

Oh darn, I hate it when people get thrush. I don't wish that on my worst enemy .

Do you need some links? Or you can search what I gave Jennifer in recent posts Or I'm sure Jennifer can help you too .

~Roo'sMama~ replied: NOoooooo!!! Don't tell me that! I don't want thrush. Well maybe it's a good thing I didn't give my acidophilus to you, huh Jen?


Maybe.... but then I always eat a lot of sugar.

Well I'll look up all those old posts too, and start taking the acidophilus I have in the fridge from when I was on that antibiotic a couple months ago.

Tell me though, how am I supposed to cut down on sugar when the only food i have in the house are fruit snacks and granola bars?

coasterqueen replied: Have you had these symptoms for a couple of months?
My guess is even though you took acidophilus, you either didn't take a strong enough dose or better yet, you just might be one (like me) that even though you do everything you are supposed to you still get thrush from antibiotics anyways.

~Roo'sMama~ replied:
I've had these symptoms for about 2 or 3 weeks maybe. They're actually really close to how I was feeling before I stopped wearing nursing pads. When I stopped wearing nursing pads for awhile everything got a lot better.

Oh! I've been wearing them more again, not constantly but I put one on while I'm feeding Roo - on the side I'm not feeding him on - because I still leak everywhere if I don't. I've been forgetting to pull it out after that and then the wet nursing pad sits there until I feed him again. Can the moisture cause thrush? Maybe it's just irritating my skin.

~Roo'sMama~ replied:
Lol you edited while I was typing.

I wasn't very good at remembering to take the acidophilus, so maybe I didn't take enough of it. But then why would I have felt better for a few weeks? (I was feeling *almost* perfect for almost a month, I think)

coasterqueen replied:
YES! The moisture from nursing pads CAN cause thrush.

Here's a great link on what all can cause thrush: http://breastfeeding.hypermart.net/thrush.html

Also, you had nipple trauma right? That can cause it as well.

Sorry Sara

coasterqueen replied:
Thrush can come and go. Seriously with my first bouts of thrush I had it off and on for 4 months straight. For one thing if you are doing treatments for antibiotics and such you have to take the correct dosage of acidophilus and also take it for about 10 days after you stop taking antibiotics.

From your latter posts it could be the wet nursing pads, the nipple trauma or the antibiotics, you never know.

I'd say treat it though but be sure to treat for 10 days at least after your symptoms go away.

~Roo'sMama~ replied: Argh. Why me? I was just reading a link on thrush you gave me before and it does sound like it. It also sounds like it's a huge pain in the butt.

I just remembered that I had antibiotics during labor for group b strep - maybe that's where my problems came from from the very beginning. I had just assumed that it hurt those first few weeks because I wasn't latching him on right.

coasterqueen replied:
I know, I've asked myself the very same thing with Kylie . We had it so long.

Anyways, I'm sorry I wasn't able to help you diagnose it earlier. It's so hard to help diagnose a definite w/out being in person and there are so many nursing issues that the symptoms are similar.

IMO if you want to get rid of it QUICK and less painful I'd go straight to the diflucan. I normally don't make it a rule to suggest that first, but you have been dealing with pain so long you need relief quickly before it brings you down

You just have to make sure you get the correct dosage. Did you see that info ina latter post I made to Jennifer?

A&A'smommy replied: I hope you get that problem fixed!

~Roo'sMama~ replied:
Yep - I think I'm going to try acidophilus and maybe either Gentian Violet or Grapefruit seed extract first, but if I do end up going to my doctor for some diflucan I'll ask her to prescribe the dosage you recommended to Jennifer.

The only reason I don't want to go straight to diflucan is because I'm a big wuss and don't want to tell my doctor what dose she needs to prescribe. If it comes to that I will but I'm hoping to avoid it.

And don't feel bad about not figuring it out before. You actually gave me the same link on thrush when I was having problems before, and I thought for awhile that that was the problem but then decided it wasn't - I was just so confused by how similar the symptoms are to every other breastfeeding problem. So it wasn't your fault!

And Thanks Jessy Ann ~ I really hope so too!!