breast feeding trouble

I have a 5.5month old who is exclusively breastfed and over the last week or so he has started to have trouble latching on as he is making my nipple very sore to the point that is bleeds a bit. Up until now I have had no trouble with him.Can anyone offer any suggestions as I dont want to stop feeding him.

MY daughter has also been exclusively breastfed and we have had no trouble until now, however she did not really enjoy feeding that much during teething-do you think he could be teething? the pressure when your baby sucks can cause discomfort and therefore they pull off and cause nipple irritation. Rub you r babies gums with bonjela about 5 mins before each feed and see if that helps - from experience I reckon it will!!

Hi Sharnee, I don't know that I can offer that much advice, but I had a similar problem. After all of the initial latching problems for the first couple of months we went along fine, then at about 7 or 8 months we had a couple of incidents where I had a REALLY painful nipple and had to go back to using the Lansinoh ointment (which was my SAVIOUR) in the beginning.

I think it was mostly me being lazy, and thinking that it was really cool that now I can put Fletcher in any position and we have no problem......... Incidentally he was also exclusively breastfed up until 6 months....

He may be starting to teath and his gums maybe giving him trouble. Not sure what else, thats just my guess. Have you tried to express? It might be worth while to pump a couple of feeds and see how he latches onto a teat.
Hope you have some luck.

Kerrie
Mya 8/5/03

As mya's mum said it could be teething or something causing a sore mouth, my daughter got thrush in her mouth with caused my nipples to get very sore and I found nipple sheilds great!

I can sympothise with you, my baby girl, is 10 months old and has decided that biting me is far better than feeding. She has a blocked nose at the moment so that doesn't help, she does drink from a cup, so I started to express a little into the cup for her. But my emotions are high, I fear that she is rejecting me and I am sad that she doesn't want me anymore.

When Emily(41/2 months) got like that, someone suggested she may have thrush, and guess what she did! The problem was that she passed it to me and my nipples were so sore. I thought it was just because she was pulling off all the time because she was to worked up to concentrate, but the poor thing was in pain. About 4 days of the gel for the both of us is back to being pain free and Em gets a full feed each time.
Hope this isn't what it is, but knowing might help.
Karen.

Thanks for the advise guys, as it turns out it is thrush in his mouth. I had no idea that could be the problem. I have been given Nilstat to wipe the inside of his mouths with. I would appreciate any other ideas for him and for easing the nipple soreness.

Hi Karen, Yes it is thrush. Can you tell me the name of the gel that got you both pain free PLEASE?? Did you also get the needle like pains in the rest of your breast after feeds? If so do you have any ideas to ease these?

Hi there, the cream I used was Daktarin oral gel, and if I remember rightly the shields were Tommy Tippy, I cant remember if I got pains in the rest of my breast, but I remember that every time I tryed to feed her it felt like razer blades on my nipples! luckly it didnt worry her, but she had it on her bottom to, which caused a rash. I hope this helps I know how you feel Paige was only 6 weeks old when she got it, and being a new mum i didnt no until my sister inlaw told me. let me no how you get on.

go for warm face washers on the breast during feeds that helped me when Bella had oral thrush. I found Daktarin to definatley be the best. Keep your nipples coated with it and feed your baby natural yoghurt it helps to kill the bad bacteria!

Yes, as Paiges mum, another karen also said the Daktarin oral gel works really quickly. Just make sure you use lots (expense just isnt an issue when your in that much pain) and wash your nipples after every feed. Stick it on a dummy to give to your baby as you want to get the majority of it on her tounge( after a feed) and licking it off the dummy was great for that I found, even know Em doesnt take a dummy.The pain as you mentioned was more of an ache for me, but my nipples didnt get to the bleeding stage.
Glad I could help.
Karen