Breastfeeding is a normal and natural process. When you think about breastfeeding before you have a baby, you probably think of all the benefits:
But while we love to talk up the fact that breastfeeding is amazing, there’s another side to the story.
Breastfeeding can be challenging. Even the most successful breastfeeding experience may have bumps. Whether it’s the initial discomfort as you and your baby learn how to breastfeed together or suffering through a bout of mastitis 6 months into your journey, not every breastfeeding journey is entirely smooth sailing.
Learning what is and is not normal in the early days is really valuable. Sometimes after the birth, a situation arises that makes learning a new skill difficult. This could be anything from problems with you or your baby, normal postpartum pain/fatigue, or perhaps the fact that an IBCLC on the floor isn’t available during your stay. Knowing the basics beforehand, and that you have an IBCLC ready to help you after you get home can be a huge benefit for the whole family.
It’s important to talk about the challenges, though, because you should not feel alone, discouraged, or hopeless during this time.
Our mission at Nest Collaborative is to support parents in all aspects of breastfeeding so that they can get the help they need AND deserve.
For parents, figuring out how to fix a breastfeeding problem can feel baffling. You’re learning this whole new skill, after all!
The first thing to do is to get help. Breastfeeding problems don’t go away on their own, but lactation consultants know what to look for. What’s more, they’re here to help you meet your goals.
And remember, breastfeeding problems are common. If you’re experiencing a problem, take heart in the fact that other breastfeeding parents have dealt with it too!
Breastfeeding doesn’t have to look just one way. Our goal at Nest Collaborative is to help breastfeeding parents find a path that works for your family. If you need help, we’re just a video call away.
While every parent, baby, and breastfeeding experience is unique, some problems are pretty common. If you’re struggling with one of these issues, take heart. These issues can be resolved!
Breastfeeding pain is common. A study conducted by the FDA and CDC from 2005-2007 discovered that 75% of breastfeeding new parents experienced pain during their first 2 weeks postpartum, but only 54% of these parents sought help for it.
For some breastfeeding parents, nipple injury causes breastfeeding pain.
If you’ve never breastfed before, your first couple of feeds can be uncomfortable. It’s a whole new sensation–a strong tugging, pulling feeling as your baby latches and then the “pins and needles” of the letdown. And remember, your baby is new at this and may need help too.
You should get used to the unique sensation of breastfeeding within a couple of weeks, and it should never feel painful. If it is painful, though, you’re likely experiencing a nipple injury. You might notice bleeding, redness, cracks, nipple blisters, and other physical signs of damage.
Nipple injuries can have several causes:
There are two parts to handling a nipple injury. You need to address the cause of the injury and you need to help your nipples heal.
To address the cause of your nipple injury, it’s helpful to work with a lactation consultant. They can pinpoint what’s causing the injury in the first place and teach you techniques and practices to keep it from recurring. For example, if your baby has a bad latch, they can help you practice latching so your baby gets enough breast tissue in their mouth and find the right nursing positions for you and your baby.
To heal the nipple injury itself, you should focus on keeping your nipples dry and protected. After nursing, apply either breast milk or nipple balm and let them dry before covering them with a nonstick nursing pad. If the breasts are especially sensitive, gel-based nipple pads can provide stronger relief. Talk to your doctor about taking an over-the-counter (OTC) pain reliever such as acetaminophen or ibuprofen before feeding.
Breastfeeding pain and discomfort often come from the breast tissue itself or a combination of breast and nipple pain.
There is a whole range of reasons for breastfeeding pain, including:
Your body starts producing milk halfway through your pregnancy, but it’s actually colostrum you’re making. While the thick, creamy colostrum is perfect for your newborn baby, your mature milk usually doesn’t come in until 2-5 days after giving birth.
When your milk comes in, it can come in quickly and in large volume. As such, it’s extremely common to have engorgement. In fact, around two-thirds of all breastfeeding parents experience engorgement in those first days.
Engorgement can make your breasts feel hard, lumpy, hot, throbbing, or swollen. However, engorgement is a passing phase when you have a baby that is latching well. Once your body and your baby get used to breastfeeding, the engorgement and discomfort will pass.
Engorgement doesn’t just happen when your milk comes in. It can occur anytime you aren’t sufficiently emptying your breasts. Engorgement can happen if your baby sleeps longer than expected, if they miss a nursing session, or during the weaning process as your baby gradually nurses less.
The key to relieving engorgement is to nurse frequently, so your breasts are fully emptied. To help with this, consider the following:
Be careful of pumping or hand expressing when dealing with engorgement, though. You want to avoid creating an oversupply!
There are many home remedies for issues like engorgement. Think cabbage leaves, potato poultices, and more. While we don’t dismiss home remedies, we always want to ground our recommendations in evidence. If you want to know the science behind our approach, just ask!
Leaking breasts is another common breastfeeding issue. But remember—it’s completely normal. As your milk supply gets established during the early weeks of nursing, you may find yourself leaking when you hear your baby cry, think about your baby, or go too long without nursing. Your breasts also might leak right before it’s time to feed your baby. This is quite normal. It’s your body letting you know it’s time to nurse. If you’re looking to avoid leaking, get baby skin-to-skin and feed as soon as you feel your breasts getting full. (It’s OK to wake up your baby to breastfeed if you’re uncomfortable.)
You may be able to apply pressure to your breasts to slow milk flow, especially if your milk supply is established. But while you can’t always prevent leaking, you can keep it from soaking through. If you find you’re prone to leaky breasts, wearing nursing pads can help. Dark and patterned shirts can also help camouflage any milk stains.
Milk ducts deliver your breast milk from the mammary glands to your baby. When things are flowing right, it’s easy to forget about them. But if they get clogged, or become narrow, you’ll recognize it quickly!
Clogged milk ducts, more recently known as ductal narrowing, may be due to inflammation.
Ductal narrowing, if not resolved, can lead to breast infections like mastitis.
Keep breastfeeding while you have clogged milk ducts. Don’t worry. It is safe. Nursing may also help to relieve some of your discomfort.
You can also try one of these home remedies to treat ductal narrowing:
If your ductal narrowing doesn’t resolve, if the tender area becomes red, or if you develop a fever, make an appointment to speak with your medical care provider.
There are two types of nipple blisters that you might experience in breastfeeding: milk blisters and friction blisters.
Milk blisters, also known as “blebs,” occur when a bit of skin grows over a milk duct opening. These blisters cause milk to back up, creating a painful white, clear, or yellow spot on your nipple or areola. While milk blisters can seem to pop up out of nowhere, they will resolve in a couple of days once the source of the problem resolves.
Make sure to talk to your doctor about taking pain relievers or if you’re experiencing ongoing pain. Untreated milk blisters can lead to ductal narrowing and mastitis spectrum.
Friction blisters are a different type of blister. Unlike the little white or yellow spots of milk trapped under the skin, friction blisters are actually on the nipple itself. These blisters are from the wear-and-tear of breastfeeding, particularly when a baby has a poor latch, a strong suck, or a breastfeeding parent has a poorly fitted nipple shield or pump.
As with any nipple injury, the key is to allow the skin to heal. Express milk, then air dry. Nipple balms and nonstick nipple pads can help reduce friction, chaffing and provide relief.
While mastitis can start as ductal narrowing, it can progress into a more serious breastfeeding issue. While some breastfeeding parents experience mild cases of mastitis that are treatable at home, ignoring the symptoms can lead to bacterial infection, abscesses, and a negative impact on your milk supply.
Mastitis is an inflammation of breast tissue.
The signs and symptoms of mastitis may include
As with any health issue, make sure to get plenty of rest and drink lots of fluids.
Depending on your symptoms, your doctor might order a milk culture prior to antibiotic treatment. Antibiotics are used for bacterial mastitis
If you’re prescribed antibiotics, make sure to take them as directed and take the entire course of antibiotics. Note, however, without treating the root of the problem, mastitis can recur even with antibiotics.
It’s important to talk to an IBCLC quickly when you’re experiencing mastitis symptoms— they can help you identify the source of the mastitis and figure out when to refer to your doctor.
Milk supply is a perennial concern for parents. Whether worrying about undersupply or oversupply, it’s one of the biggest questions we get at Nest Collaborative.
Worrying about undersupply is understandable. When you’re breastfeeding, specifically when you’re nursing, you can’t see exactly how much your baby is getting at each feed. And pumping isn’t the best way to measure your supply, as many breastfeeding parents don’t respond the same to the pump as they do to nursing.
Most parents don’t have a low supply. Generally, if your baby has enough wet and dirty diapers and is gaining weight along their growth curve, then they’re getting enough milk.
If your baby isn’t gaining enough weight or isn’t producing enough diapers, then it’s time to talk to an IBCLC. They can observe nursing behavior and the baby’s latch, which can help assess milk transfer.
Sometimes parents worry about lack of weight gain, thinking they’ve got a supply issue when in fact, a tongue or lip-tie can cause the baby to work so hard at nursing that they burn more calories than they take in. In those cases, fixing the tongue or lip-tie can often resolve the problem entirely, as long as the tongue or lip-tie release procedure is done correctly and parents carefully follow post operation care instructions.
Milk supply is a supply and demand issue. If you’re struggling with low supply, make sure you’re practicing on-demand breastfeeding and allowing your baby to nurse to completion. Incorporating massage and compression can help remove all your milk, which then tells your body to make more milk. This practice benefits your baby too, as the milk at the end of a feed (also known as hindmilk) is fattier and keeps your baby satisfied.
You can also follow a nursing session with a pumping session to help boost your supply.
Parents are often curious about options for diets, supplements, or prescription medications to help boost milk supply. Talk with your IBCLC about these options and whether they’re right for you.
While many parents would love to have too much milk, oversupply poses its challenges.
Treating oversupply while still protecting your milk supply is a balancing act. You can help make your milk flow more comfortable for your baby by nursing in a laid-back, reclining, or side-lying position.
While you should continue to nurse on-demand, you can try block feeding to slowly and safely decrease your supply without risking clogged ducts. Block feeding is a technique where you feed only from one breast per feed rather than from both. Consult with a Nest IBCLC to help create a plan.
Tongue and lip-tie conditions are frequently discussed concerns with breastfeeding parents.
Also known as ankyloglossia, tongue-tie means that the frenulum—the tissue joining the bottom of the tongue to the floor of the mouth—is too short or tight. This condition can lead to difficulty nursing because of the tongue’s limited range of motion.
Lip-tie is similar, although less frequently diagnosed, where the upper and or lower gum is too short or tight, causing the lips to have difficulty creating a seal against the breast.
While some tongue and lip-tie conditions don’t cause noticeable problems, others make it difficult for a baby to latch on during breastfeeding. Pay attention to these signs.
It’s common to talk about tongue and lip-tie in degrees of severity but remember, what you and your baby are experiencing is more important than a diagnostic chart. If you suspect your baby has tongue or lip-tie, it’s essential to see a specialist such as a dentist or ENT with experience evaluating and treating tongue and lip-tie conditions.
If your baby struggles to latch or stay latched, speaking with an IBCLC is an excellent place to start. These highly experienced lactation consultants can work with you to see if a tongue or lip-tie is affecting your baby.
If it is the culprit, there are lots of options:
While IBCLCs can help identify issues with tongue and lip-tie, they can’t diagnose them. A dentist or ENT are usually the best healthcare providers to evaluate and treat these conditions.
Resolving a tongue or lip-tie goes beyond breastfeeding issues. An untreated tongue-tie or lip-tie can lead to:
Thrush, caused by a yeast called Candida Albicans, is a breastfeeding issue that concerns both you and your baby. Thrush affects your breasts, nipples, and other parts of your body, as well as your baby’s mouth and bottom area. Thrush thrives in warm, moist areas, so any skin that touches other skin is vulnerable.
Thrush can be identified by:
Thrush is highly contagious, which means not only is it often found on both breasts, but it’s rarely confined just to the parent. If your baby is nursing and you have thrush, he or she likely has it as well. Signs of thrush in your baby include:
It’s critical for both you and your baby to receive treatment for thrush. The preferred course of treatment by the Academy of Breastfeeding Medicine (AMB) is nystatin. They also recommend:
Thrush symptoms may take some time to resolve, so it is recommended that you:
Breastfeeding can be challenging, but IBCLCs want you to have a rewarding, nourishing breastfeeding experience. There’s a path forward for every problem that will help you meet your breastfeeding goals, whatever they are.
But when is it time to contact an IBCLC?
For preventive care:
Other reasons include:
If your baby:
Or any time you have questions or concerns about how breastfeeding is going!
If you’re experiencing any of these problems, book a convenient online video appointment with a Nest Collaborative IBCLC.
