Saw an interesting case today and wanted to see if others of you had any suggestions. Second time mom who nursed her first 6 months. About 4 months along she developed a cracked nipple (actually at the base of the nipple) which eventually led to an infection and mastitis which she states wasn't discovered until several weeks of Rx for thrush did not lead to any improvement. (I had not seen her at this time.) Now with her second baby, she reported soreness right from the start. No real red flags for thrush. Position and latch looked good from the start. She came in for an outpatient visit with baby at 6 days. Weight was nearly back to birth weight and there was no concern with supply. However, she was complaining of excruciating pain and a cracked nipple. Everything looked normal except for a small shiny line where she indicated the pain was. She thinks it's the same location as the crack with her first. There was no tenderness anywhere else and no warmth or redness that would make me suspect any infection. We worked on refining the latch-exaggerating the asymmetric latch a bit and she reported it still hurt, but not as bad. We took baby off and the nipple was symmetrically shaped, but the line was wider and shinier-no redness or bleeding. My first thought was it looked like a stretch mark. I wondered if it was the same spot as her problems last time if that area wasn't as elastic as the rest of the nipple and if indeed it was the same as a stretch mark an expectant mom might get on her breast or belly. She very much wants to give that nipple some rest and pump a couple days (she's very frightened of having the same experience she did with her first). Pump hurt, but not as much as baby nursing. I gave her suggestions re the pumping (lubricate the flange with some water or expressed milk so it doesn't "grab" the nipple-use larger flange). I also suggested using cocoa butter or olive oil on the line on the assumption it was a stretch mark. Do you think it was a stretch mark? Any other ideas? Winnie *********************************************** To temporarily stop your subscription: set lactnet nomail To start it again: set lactnet mail (or digest) To unsubscribe: unsubscribe lactnet All commands go to [log in to unmask] The LACTNET mailing list is powered by L-Soft's renowned LISTSERV(R) list management software together with L-Soft's LSMTP(TM) mailer for lightning fast mail delivery. For more information, go to: http://www.lsoft.com/LISTSERV-powered.html