A part of your motherhood journey is trusting your gut!
Do you feel like something isn’t right with your infant’s latch? Are you hearing a clicking sound? Is it painful but then subsides? These issues can be due to a shallow latch and it only takes a few bad latches to start the breakdown on your nipples. If you’re in the early days of pain and need preventative care (in addition to help with latching) I recommend the following;
First and foremost you’ll want to address latch and positioning
I am happy to walk you through latch and positioning! We can have a consult where I’ll demonstrate positioning, latching techniques and further guidance on why and how to deepen infant’s latch. This is truly the best way to prevent further breakdown. Our text consult is a great option for this too!
Earth Mama Nipple Butter
This is really my favorite nipple ointment on the market! It feels cooling and relieving upon applying, it’s not sticky and does not need to be washed off and it is actually healing. There are ointments like lanolin that are very popular but lack real healing botanicals. Not this one! It’s jam packed with things like beeswax, calendula and vitamins to aid in the quick healing of raw skin. It’s also easy to find and very reasonably priced! Check it out.
Nipple Treatments
Hand Expressing
Hand expressing breast milk and allowing it to air dry on your sore nipples can be an incredible remedy for raw skin. Breastmilk can be used for any scrapes, cuts or wounds for the whole family since it has antibacterial properties, antibodies and growth factor components which help repair skin. You can also grab some of these breast shells so that when you hand express, you can apply these over your tender nipple to allow space between your skin and clothing to prevent further irritation.
Don’t Suffer Alone
Sometimes in those tender few days following delivery, or around the time our babes start teething we can become incredibly sore. Soreness can quickly turn into severe sharp shooting pains, burning sensations, and even cracked bleeding nipples. This is our most urgent form of pain because it can be all consuming. For immediate relief I recommend 3 things;
The pain is BAD!
Hydrogel pads
These can be incredibly helpful for immediate on-demand relief for those sore times. A trick of the trade is, before applying put them in the refrigerator for quick cooling relief. Hydrogels can be found on Amazon, Target or Walmart. A single hydrogel can be reapplied as needed for a 24 hour period. Upon removing, rinse with water and place back in the refrigerator for future use. Throw out after a day and grab a new one. These typically come in packs of 4 and make for GREAT gifts for first time Moms!
Earth Mama Nipple Butter
There are plenty of creams on the market but take it from a professional, THIS is the best! Earth Mama Nipple Butter is organic, food grade safe (no need to wipe off before feeds), non-sticky and full of botanicals like beeswax and calendula to aid in the healing of sore or cracked skin. It can be liberally applied to both nipples after every breastfeeding session until nipples have healed. This also makes a great gift!
Breast rest
Sometimes no matter what we apply, or what we do we are still in pain, and if that’s you here is your option! Breast rest is a 24 hour period in which we do not bring baby(s) to the breast. Instead, you’ll focus on hand expressing, or pumping (if you can tolerate it) in order to protect your milk supply. If at the end of your 24 hour period, you are feeling better than we bring baby back to the breast. If you are still too sore, go for another 24 period of breast rest. Worried about bottle feeding while resting the breast? We do have a technique for bottle feeding a breastfed baby and it can be found here!