Dear LACTNETers--Once again I'm calling upon your expertise and experience.  I've been NO MAIL for awhile 'cuz I was spending too much time being intrigued by all the info.  I have 2 puzzles for you...
Mom #1...3rd baby.  Did not nurse 1st baby.  Nursed 2nd baby (D.O.B. 6-16-99) with continuous nipple and deep breast pain throughout the 5 months that she breastfed.  We ruled out positioning and latch problems, Candida and she even took Nifedipine (for possible Reynaud's syndrome) for a week and quit that because it wasn't helping and she didn't like taking medications that might affect her baby.  She had recurring plugged ducts which resolved readily and one occurence of the "white bleb" blocked nipple pore, actually bilaterally.  She quit breastfeeding the day that her baby spit up a bright red blood-laden feeding of breastmilk.  (Nipples were intact throughout her nursing experience.)  She was also being followed by her OB/GYN who could offer no explanation for her misery.  At some point in our quest for answers, she told me of a car accident she had been in during her college years which had resulted in "total body bruising" including her chest area.  The only thing I could think of was that there could have been some internal damage/scar tissue from that time that was causing the pain.  She has siblings who have nursed without problems.  She said her breasts have always been sensitve with menstrual periods but not otherwise, except during breastfeeding.  She has a new baby who is now 12 weeks old and has once again experienced the same pain and we've ruled out all the common sources of breast pain.  She describes the pain as "stabbing, razor-sharp in the nipple-areola area,"  it radiates from deep in the breast to the nipple, sometimes nursing isn't painful but often is excruciating, the pain is constant--between feedings, throughout feedings.   It is as painful to pump as it is to breastfeed.  She gets quite alot of relief from sleeping with a heating pad and using it as much as possible during the day.  When she uses the heating pad, the "between feeding" pain is much relieved.  She gets some relief from Ibuprofen also but doesn't like to take it because of the baby being affected.  She called this week and is quitting feedings from the left side as the baby had a feeding from that side, after which she spit up a small amount bright red blood  (again, intact nipples), followed the next day by an enormous black stool--evidently, another blood-laden feeding.  (She had called about a month ago about a small black stool the baby had--the next stool was normal.)  She says she feels like something internally just finally "breaks" and thus the bleeding.  Her doctor, the baby's doctor and I are all amazed at her determination that her baby have breastmilk despite her misery.  She has recently started taking a homeopathic remedy that is known to relieve breast pain--Phyllandrium aquaticum (spelling?)--in hopes that she can continue nursing at least as long as she did her 2nd baby.  Sorry this is so long...it's a LONG story!   Any insights???
Mom #2--Can abnormally low estrogen levels (in a 25 y.o.) cause insufficient milk supply?
Thanks for all your cummulative experience...it's a great help to us novices!  Peggy Talsness (Otter Tail County WIC and Public Health in Minnesota)

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