You won't believe this one.I have a mom who has been dealing with
chronically sore nipples.  They had gotten better after treating for thrush
and getting the baby off them (he's badly tongue-tied and NO ONE will
clip!!!) and pumping only.  Baby is about 3 months old now.  She had about 4
wks of relatively pain free pumping.

 

A couple weeks ago they started to hurt some more, get red, flaky, oozy.she
tried all her ointments she used beforehand before calling me a couple days
ago.  She lives pretty far away from me making taking a quick look at her
rather challenging.  But I will be asking her to e-mail me a picture.  We
discussed all her symptoms and I think she may actually have a staph
infection, possibly along with more yeast.  Told her to go to the Dr.  After
speaking with 2-3 different Drs all of whom just said "They are irritated
there is nothing we can do.  No we won't culture.", she finally found a Dr
who, after speaking with a dermatologist who diagnosed mom with contact
dermatitis WITHOUT even looking at her nipples, agreed to go ahead and do a
culture.  He told her to stop using all the ointments (bactroban,
hydrocortisone and miconozole - which she hadn't been using for more than a
couple days) and to use something else.  

 

She called me to verify that it was OK.I was floored when she said, "He told
me to use Bag Balm and Aquaphor on my nipples and that they were safe and
would be much better for my nipples."  Now, I don't know much about
Aquaphor, but I sure as heck am not going to suggest she put Bag Balm on her
nipples!  For those of you who don't know what this is, it is a ointment
full of lanolins that is used for cow udders, rashes, scrapes, cuts, etc on
animals and pets.  

 

Good grief.am I just cranky today or is that a totally inappropriate
suggestion??

 

If anyone has any ideas for helping this mom I'm open.and asking!  We've
already discussed appropriate cleaning of her pump parts (she is doing well
there), using a mild soap only (she was) but switching out to Cetaphil (much
more mild), olive oil (which she uses to lubricate her flanges because her
nipples are so sore), breastmilk and possibly going to an herbal salve like
Motherlove, if nothing else is working.  Maybe I am just exhausted lately (I
am) but I am out of ideas right now.

 

Thanks for any input!

 

J

 

Jaye Simpson, IBCLC, CIIM

Breastfeeding Network

Sacramento, CA

www.breastfeedingnetwork.net

 


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