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Overcame Nipple Pain, High Palate, and Multiple Infections
By
Beth
from California
My daughter's first nursing efforts brought pain – and scabbed nipples. Within a few days, our midwives suggested we try nipple shields to coax out my flat nipples and to help our little girl draw milk from them.
During her first week, our daughter lost a frightening amount of weight. After her birth, she weighed 7 pounds 11 ounces, but within a few days, she had dipped to 6 pounds, 10 ounces. The pediatrician said our daughter could be hospitalized if she didn't start gaining weight – and dirtying more diapers.
It was an outcome we'd feared. I had breast reduction surgery eight years earlier, and it looked like I wasn't making enough milk. At first, we fed her milk donated by a friend – by syringe, a slow and exhausting process. Our LC saw that long feeds were making us crazy. She told us that because we were already using nipple shields, our girl was unlikely to develop nipple confusion if we started giving her a bottle.
We tried it – and she guzzled her milk down so fast she didn't know what hit her. But, for the first time in days, her tummy was full and she was happy.
We got the hang of nursing with the shields, but in our fourth week I developed a high fever and swollen breasts. Our LC suspected mastitis, and UCSF confirmed it, prescribing me a 2-week course of antibiotics, along with hot compresses and lots of nursing. Within days, I felt better.
But the mastitis came back twice more, each time after I'd finished my antibiotics. I felt tired, run-down, defeated, scared. I was tired of drugs and hot compresses, painful nursing and pumping sessions.
We had weaned from the nipple shields, but I'd been having a lot of pain in my right breast, particularly my nipple. Another LC came to see us, and told me that our girl had a high palate and was compressing my nipple badly when she nursed. She fixed our latch, and immediately it seemed like she was drinking more milk. The change seems to have helped; I haven't had an infection since.
My daughter now gets up to half her milk from me. The other half is from formula or donated milk, when we can get it. Though I can't always satisfy her hunger, it's clear she loves nursing. She cries for it; she gets excited when she's about to latch on. When we nurse lying in bed, she falls asleep, comforted by our closeness.
But the best part is when, in the middle of nursing, she grins up at me, a trail of milk running down her cheek. It's as if she's saying “this is great, Mom. Thanks!”
Content last updated July 12, 2009.
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