please help, I have seen some posts on healing for very sore nipples and need
to pass them along to a client. This mom is 14 days pp and now is pumping for
a couple days to allow very damaged nipples to heal.  I saw this mom 2 days
ago and recommended pumping for a couple days because she stated he could no
longer stand to put the baby to breast and from the looks of things I could
see why.  baby appears to be latched on well at first glance but needs help
pulling out bottom lip, mom says pain subsides 1/2 way through feeding, then
when you remove infant form breast the nipple is creased and blanched white.
Right nipple has scab left nipple is an open sore at the end.  This mom is
ready to quit.  I told her that the best thing she can do is pump untill the
nipples heal over so she willhopefully avoid mastitis, she is agreeable to
that, explained alternate feeding method to her but she says she tried and it
did not" go well" I don't know if I will ever get this mom to try t latch the
baby on again, any suggestions on keeeping her motivated?  also any
suggestions for help in healing very sore nipples would be appreciated.  I
have tried to reassure mom that it is nothing she is doing wrong and that I
dont think it is just a positioning problem but rather a destructive way of
sucking the baby has developed.  I discussed suck training with her but she
and her husband both rolled their eyes and seemed to think it was not worth
the bother. even though this baby has had some artificial nipples I dont
think this type of sucking is necessarily "nipple confusion" due to my
personal experience with my third child who did the exact same thing and
never received any artificial nipples.  with my son he continued this type of
destructive suckling for 3 weeks and I remember telling my husband that if I
was a first time mother and didn't know what I know I probably would have
thrown in the towel.
sorry to be so long winded, any suggestions on keeping her motivated and
helping her to re-latch the baby would be greatly appreciated.

Jessica Donahue RN
Little Rock, Ar  ( please don't hold that against me!! I didn' vote for Bill)