Healing Tips for Nipple Cracks or Abrasions while breastfeeding – Dr.Kritika Agarwal

There are 3 most important reasons one would be improper latching. Second if the baby has bitten and the third can be thrush. So the most important thing to prevent it or to see that it does not increase more would be proper latching pf the baby. So when you are latching the baby, see the mouth is covering most of the brown part. If the baby is sucking on the areaola and the baby’s head should be towards the mother’s side. So the baby’s head is towards you and the baby’s mouth is on the areola the chances that the healing would be faster and would be better. The third thing is start nursing which does not have the crack. The initial sucks of the newborn are very vigorous and gradually the sucking becomes gentle. Once the sucking becomes gentle, then you can move the baby to the other side so with a gentle sucking the crack would not increase. The third thing that you would do is after feeding, you can either express milk or emollient containing ointments. So that will help in the early healing, in between the feeding it is advisable to keep the area dry. So you can leave them open for some time so that air can come in. Use nursing pads so that they are not too much damp. If your child has thrush and it is a fungal infection, then thrush treatment needs to be given. In case the feeding is very painful and if you are not able to feed the baby, you have to express the milk. Either it has to be through a pump or through a manual expression because if you do not express, it can cause inflammation and fever, inspite of doing all this , if you develop fever, or if you have any redness or any pus is coming out, you have to meet your lady doctor. Please do not try to self-treat them.