Permission to post. I was speaking to a mom today who is 40 weeks pregnant and has been suffering from cracked nipples for about 3 months now. She states that 3 months ago her breasts became very sore, her nipples turned very dark and became very dry and they started to peel and crack. At the moment, she states that each nipple has about 5-7 cracks in it, and when she touches them "pieces fall off leaving a crater". When asked about pain, she states that she sometimes has throbbing pain. She has been applying lanolin cream on the advice of her doctor with no improvement. Her doctor stated that he has never seen cracked nipples prior to birth and referred her to LLL. I have suggested that she ask her doctor to swab her nipples and send the swabs for culture and sensitivity, but I am posting in hopes that someone has other suggestions or has seen this before. Mom wants to breastfeed but her nipples are currently in very bad shape.

Fleur Bickford BSc., RN, BN(c), IBCLC, LLLL
Ontario, Canada

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