Hi there,
There is a mother I am very close with.  Her baby is 8 months old, he
started to refuse the breast at 3 months and only nursed at night and when
he was sleepy - she sought out much help from me and other private IBCLCs to
no avail - he continued to resist breastfeeding until 6 months of age, when
he quit breastfeeding all together.  The mother has been pumping with a Pump
in Style using 30 mm flanges without incident for months until the last few
weeks when she had to begin using 36 mm flanges... Her nipples have swelled
up so much that the 30 mm flanges were causing extreme pain - and even with
the 36 mm flanges she had to decrease the suction of the pump.  Her areolas
do get pulled into the flange, but she states there is no way she could use
a smaller flange at this point.  She said her nipples return to a normal
size for her after an hour or so after pumping.  She is having to use breast
pads to "hide her huge nipples" as she put it.

She did rent a Symphony for a month a couple of months ago, but did not
notice any increase in milk supply or comfort so she returned it.  She pumps
5 times a day usually for 20 min each time and gets about 30 oz a day - well
while she was on vacation her milk decreased (not too surprising considering
how busy she was) but now her nipples have started to bleed on the sides of
the nipple... she called her milk strawberry milk.  Today when speaking with
her she stated her nipples did not bleed when pumping but she is now having
to pump twice as long to only get 20 ounces/day instead of 30 ounces.

I have many concerns about this, mostly being nipple trauma... has anyone
heard of this increase in nipple swelling - I mean I was surprised at how
large her nipples were since I helped her nurse when the baby was born and
her nipples did fit fine in 27 mm flanges at maybe 30 mm flanges... so
having to use 36 mm flanges and still having the nipple rubbing the sides of
the inside???  I spoke with this mother about coming in to try different
pumps with different size flanges... but she stated if she had to rent a
pump again - she was going to quit pumping - Now this mother is a very
dedicated mother and has been through soooo much with this breastfeeding
experience and at times breastfeeding/or lack thereof has consumed her - 

Any thoughts or recommendations I can do to help??
Thank you,

Andrea Hensley, RN IBCLC
Glendale, AZ

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