I am an LLL Leader and I have a question about a mother I am helping.  Her
baby is 6 months old and breastfeeding has been just fine until a couple of
weeks ago. ( She did have a couple of weeks of soreness in the beginning,
but that went away.)  We thought it was due to teething because baby was
chewing.  Dr. treated her for thrush since soreness was bad.  Both mom and
baby test negative for thrush at this point.

She does have very sensitive skin, which gets dry in the winter.  Lansinoh
seemed to help at first and she followed advice about teething babies.  The
soreness seemed to go away but now it is back and it is worse and showing
no signs of getting better.  One side is unbearable to nurse on and the
other is tolerable so she is only nursing on the least sore side for now.
A nurse (who has experience watching babies nurse)  could see nothing wrong
with how the baby nursed.  Baby does not take pacifier or bottle.

I looked at mom's nipples and I could see a possible crack in the tip of
the sorest side.  I have little experience in looking at traumatized
nipples, but her nipples did not look that bad.  They were not really red
or irritated looking.  Even the crack did not look too bad.  I guess I
expected to see a lot worse since the mother  described the pain as
excruciating.  I know some things may not be so obvious so I am not
underestimating her pain.

I have looked through the archives here, but I am still not sure.  I have
read about eczema, dermatitis, baby's saliva, baby foods, and several other
things here that could be a possibility.  I am not in a position to make a
diagnosis.  We do not have a dermatologist close by.  Should this mother go
to one to rule out a skin condition?  This all started when the baby
started teething.  Could the baby's saliva cause enough irritation in a
sensitive mom to cause this much pain?  Baby is not chewing or biting this
time.  Also, the mother described blisters on her nipple that come and go.
She said it looks as if her nipple had been burned.  I did not see any
blisters at all when she showed me her nipples.

I know there are ointments that can be used, but it is suggested that the
cause be found first.  What things could cause this kind of soreness after
months of good breastfeeding?  This may be a hard one to answer since you
can't see her nipples, but I thought I would ask anyway.  Any suggestions
would be much appreciated.  Thank you.

Christine Lichte

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