I just wanted to share an experience with this.  When my fifth child was
four months old, we had a bout with thrush, during which some rather
large, gaping cracks opened up at the base of my nipples. We got rid of
the thrush, but could not get rid of the cracks.  They would appear to
close up between nursings but open right back up each time he latched
on.  I tried different positions, every topical thing that was a
possibility, wearing breast shells, treating for thrush several other
times, to make sure it was gone ect.. I even tried nursing on only one
side for twenty-four hours to see if the other side would heal, but it
still opened right back up again.

After two months of this, I finally started to wonder if I was deficient
in something that was making my skin heal less effectively.  I decided
to take extra vit. A & E.  By the next day, they were mostly healed.

A short time later, I saw a letter in the ILCA journal from someone
saying she felt there was evidence that vit. A taken internally could
help heal persistent nipple fissures.

I also heard of the WORST way to treat this.  A friend of mine, who had
the same problem, went to one of the GPs here in town to see if he could
help.  He put SILVER NITRATE on her nipples!  She was in agony for days
and gave up nursing.

Aloha,
Darillyn