My daughter is 3month old i have been bf her and give her formula when v r out in public places.From day one my nipples have cracked and not recovered till now it is very painful feeding at times.i use nipple shield to feed her but want to feed her directly. i tried putting nipcare,ghee and other creams too as recommended by dr. but once recovered again when she sucks without nipple sheild it cracks and makes it painful again.what should i do.
one more thing...is it possible to express breast milk in bottle and carry it for 3-4hrs and feed her in public.please Jisha replied. Hi,
I had the same problem and it made breastfeeding very painful for me. One of the reasons was that my baby was not latching on properly. Others are that nipples are very sensitive and not used to rough suckling in the beginning. Sucking can make nipples very dry. I tried three things and together they worked very well for me.
1> Practise with your baby till she learns to latch on properly. (you can google for videos on correct latching)
2> Massage nipples very gently with a mixture of gingelly oil and warm water in a 1:1 ratio. This needs to be washed off with lots of water and wiped off with a soft cloth.
3> Continue to feed even though it is painful and apply breast milk to the nipples after your baby had finished feeding.
It took me about two weeks to feed my baby without any pain or discomfort. Lata replied. Hi Nidhi,

I am a mother of 2 kids with the younger one being 10 months old. Even I had the problem of cracked nipple after both delivery and especially after the second delivery, it continued for more than 3 months and hence I can understand ur prob. There was a time when I just used to pull out my nipples without feeding the baby. Even I had tried all types of medicine like ghee, butter, nipcare etc. with no result.

Later my MIL consulted one ayurvedic doctor in Kerala and he suggested one oinment - Shadadauthakritha (available in ayurveda stores like kottakal, Nagarjuna- These are stores that sell ayurvedic med. from Kerala. I am not sure if you know any of these stores near ur area. They have some branches in Mumbai. Secondly, this ointment is good not any type of wound and it is not specifically meant for the breast. It contains 75% ghee and 25% of some other medicine. You just have to apply it after feeding and wash/wipe it off before feeding. THe doctor had said that if a small trace goes inside ur baby' s body, it will not harm the baby) I tried it and believe me it worked.

One more thing that my MIL told me was that whenever u feel the pain and u r not in the mood to feed ur baby, just look at his/her innocent face and try to remember all the difficulties that u had faced to bring this child into this world and this will help u to bear the pain and feed the baby.

Also, do take care to latch ur baby properly. Please do not worry as this is just a passing phase. I had given formula feed during the first three months and then slowly I stopped the formula and continued only with bf. Now my baby is 10 month old and I am still feeding him and enjoying all his mischief during bf. Moreover, nip shield did not work for me as he was not comfortable. My doctor asked me to stop feeding till my breasts healed (I had 2 cracks on one side and 3 on the other) but my baby never allowed it. ALso, your baby' s suckling the breast infact is a good way of healing cracked nipple.

Also just check with ur Gyn. if u r suffering from mastitis or anything else. Also check for fungal infection in ur baby' s mouth.

Once again do not worry. Everything will be alright. If u can find the medicine that I have mentioned above, apply it, else try applying homemade butter or ghee.

Regards,

Lata