I have followed these posts with interest, and somewhat agree with Maureen
Minchion that this much loss of surface skin should be accompanied with a dx
-- or at least some sort of informed opinion from medical staff about what
might be occuring.
 But then, I get a fair number of clients referred by people who say, "Go see
Barbara, she sees a lot of breasts (!)"  So I guess there is also a lot of
informed GUESSING we all do.

I saw one preg. woman about a week before due date who had several layers of
crusty looking "stuff" on her nipples.  It flaked and peeled but was not
particularly tender.  She had heard not to prepare her nipples and also that
milk rubbed into nipples was good.  She understood this to mean to allow the
leaking colostral fluids to remain on her nipples and not to wash them.  I
advised her to begin to use warm soaks and gentle, gentle wash cloth rubs
after a bit of lansinoh application to remove these layers of dead skin and
and crusted secretions.  She did this over a period of a few days.  The
tissue below was pink and a bit "new" looking, but not terribly tender.  I
believe that if the baby had been put to breast, the saliva, sucking and
washing away from the milk flow would have produced an affect that would have
resembled these seedy nipples you all have described. But perhaps there are
other mechanisms occuring.  Any way, thought I'd share this one.
Barbara Wilson-Clay, BSE, IBCLC
priv. pract. Austin, Tx