Sore Nipples - Iowa City,IA

If it's the milk that is the priority and not necessarily the emotional bonding you may want to consider pumping and switching him to breast milk in a bottle. I wish I had another solution but I'm assuming you've already tried holding him different ways. Good luck!

I would say that you probably have Thrush. If you have been nursing for 8 months, then you probably have the latch thing down, or it would of been hurting you the whole 8 months. When I had thrush, my son had no tell tale signs in his mouth, my nipples just hurt like heck. Hurt when they brushed up against fabric and burned. Creams did not work, I had to wipe them off when it was time to nurse. I used Gentian Violet. You can ask your pharmacist for it over the counter. It is a little bottle of purple liquid that stains anything it touches. Just paint your nipple several times a day. Your son will have a purple mouth, but the relief is immediate. My son got his teeth in real early and he nipped me occasionally, but the thrush hurt the worst of all. The good thing is, it wont hurt anything to try the Gentian violet.

Great job sticking with the breastfeeding!!! My son just turned 2 and I can't get the little guy to stay away from my boobs!

say, im not sure, you probably got all the answers you need, but i thought i would post anyway. :)

congratulations for sticking with your decision to keep breastfeeding until your baby is a year old! i aimed for that too, and decided to keep nursing after that; my son self weaned at 20 months. i was disappointed! LOL.

anyway, what i did with him was to immediatly end the feeding. you can do that one of 2 ways, you can say "ouch! hurt mama! no!" and put him down, or do what i did, just put him down and i think i said something like "ok, you arent hungry anymore are ya?" - it worked. he NEVER did it again. worked like a charm! :P

good luck! and im so glad that you are breastfeeding - it truly is the most perfect food for your baby! :) breastmilk changes as time goes by; its perfectly suited for her specific age, even when shes older! :) its awesome!

you can also use it on owies too. i put some on my son's head when he scraped it on our porch... it healed right up, no scab, no scar!

if this is a teeth rubbing issue, make sure your nipple gets far enough in his mouth. sometimes another way to get baby to loosen their mouth is to pull him toward your breast; this forces him to open his mouth more. :) try that!: )

I broke out the lanolin again when the teeth appeared. It helped reduced the friction and, while I got sore again, it kept the skin from actually breaking. Good luck, the little guy will adjust to latching and your breasts will adjust. My daughter's two top teeth came in first and had a HUGE space between them. My breast would actually get sucked between and I would get a blood blister there!

I remember it hurting for a while when the top two teeth (I think) came in with my first son. I would have a little mark from his teeth on the outer edge of my areola when he was done, and it got pretty sore. I don't have any advice (I suppose alternating positions would probably help), but I just wanted to let you know that for me it lasted maybe a week and then it stopped.

Well S. Beara, hope you figure this one out, cuz I'll probably be in the same boat in another month or so! Or maybe I'll get lucky and Liam won't get his top teeth until after he's one! :)

Oh, and I second the Lanolin idea too. That stuff's awesome.

If he is not a bitter, then it usually is 1 of 2 things. Is he pulling off when he is feeding taking breaks? At 7-8 months old, babies get very curious about things around them and start to take these what I call bendy straw feedings. They start to pull away and want to look and listen to things around them which cause nipple trama in the mom. So if this is the case, you need to break his latch when he starts to get a "little curious". Use lanolin in this case until the nipples heal.
The 2nd reason could be thrush. This can happen very easy as the babies get older. They are eatting different foods and this can throw off the babies yeast balance in the body and or mouth. Many times it is hard to see in them as it can be on the inside of the cheeks and not the tongue. Take him in for a quick look in the mouth or give him some yogurt and help set up the balance again. You will need to get a little nystatin for your nipples and drops for him and you are good to go. Yes you can be getting little cuts from his teeth if you have thrush because the new teeth can be affecting the nipple.
A baby this old knows how to latch and fling the mouth which proper latching the teeth are not exsposed. Now some babies are bitters and like to bite, but you can usually tell if this is the case.

It should not hurt when breastfeeding. No matter how many teeth they have.
That means, he is not latching on properly... and only grasping the tip of the nipple with his mouth.
The ENTIRE areola should be IN his mouth, encircling it completely.

I nursed my boy until about 1 year old and he self-weaned. He had lots of teeth. It never hurt.
My daughter nursed until she self-weaned until about 2.5 years old. It never hurt.
BUT... when they both were about 6 months old and getting emerging teeth/teething.. they would knaw on me. I would YELL "stop! It hurts..." and un-latch them. I would then make my facial expression into one of "hurt" and then would put them back on. If they did it again, then I say loudly "STOP! It hurts..." etc., and un-latch them. Then repeat until they stopped. Completely. It didn't take long for them to learn.

If he occasionally 'bites' you, which they do at times or when they are teething, simply un-latch him, tell him NO, and then wait. Then, latch him back on. Anytime he 'bites' intentionally, take him off.

They will learn.
I nursed both my kids, and it will stop. I never stopped breastfeeding because of it. It is par for the course.
Sure, I got occasionally sore/cuts and it hurts. I used Lanolin nipple cream.
Also do NOT put soap on it or rub/scrub it when bathing or it will get dry and crack more... just rinse the nipples with water. Or, put breastmilk on it.

This is normal. But they do stop.

All the best,
Susan

As my son got older, he had less room in his mouth because of his teeth and it felt like he was biting all the time. I just kept my nipples as moisturized as I could and that helped. I would also take a tiny break in the middle of him nursing and that helped too. I would notice that the longer he would nurse, the less of my nipple would be in his mouth and he was closing his mouth more. The break helped get him repositioned. I know at this age it gets really tough to keep breastfeeding, but this was just a stage my son went through. It took about a month before he started learning about his teeth and biting and then it was a lot easier. Good luck!

If you decide to take breaks, don't pull your baby off your breast. Take a finger and insert in his mouth to break suction . . that way he doesn't pull on the breast tissue.

Try nipple shields.