Thursday, February 01, 2007

For the Ladies

Alright, male readers...this post is NOT for you. Do yourself a favor and scram. You don't want to read about this. Go ahead...click on Next Blog now while you have the chance. Scat.











Ok, now that THEY are gone us gals can chat. Brady as you know is now 10 months old. I am still breastfeeding. And I love it. I wanted to continue until he was at least a year and maybe a few months longer. Sometimes it makes me feel great like I have some sort of superpower and a special little secret between him and me. I love the way he gazes up and me and gives me a milky smile, or how he pats me with his chubby little hand, or the way he kneads me like a little kitten. Over the last few months we have been through long periods of thrush. He doesn't have it so bad, but I am in terrible pain.


My nipples are severely cracked, red, swollen, the skin is PEELING OFF. It is disgusting and I am dreading....DREADING nursing him. It is so bad that I am down to only nursing him at night for a short period and in the morning. It hurts to wear a bra. It hurts WORSE not to wear a bra. Let's just say our sex life is not exhilerating with this little problem lurking around. Dan has to fear getting smacked just for looking at them. I swear my nipples sting just from being seen.




My kids all have extremely fast metabolisms that require them to eat an extraordinary amount of calories to maintain and gain weight. I am feeding him tons of snacks and putting formula in with his solids. So I think he is doing OKAY on his calorie intake. But he WILL NOT take ANY liquids. I have tried bottles, sippys, regular cups. I have tried juice, formula, water, sugar water. The kid won't drink.




If it isn't a nipple...MY nipple...he won't touch it. I am at a loss. And I am reaching out to you ladies for advice (and to you men who seem to think you didn't need to run when I gave you the chance).




I don't know how to break the cycle. I am ready to give up breastfeeding. And I hate that. I really don't want to do that. But oh, my red cracked nipples! I can't take it!!




I have been treating them with anti-fungal, I took a difulcan pill, Brady is being treated with Nystatin. I've tried rubbing the breast milk into the nipple for treatment. Nothing is working. My doctor is a jerk who totally does not care. Bite me. Or here, let my germ infested nipple biter latch on to you until you bleed and see if you can conjure up some compassion.







I figure if I just jump ship and wean him, the problem will go away, he will get thirsty and eventually drink the formula. But I cry at the very thought. Yes, I may feel like a dairy cow sometimes (MOO!!!) but I am not ready to give it up. Maybe if I didn't know this was my last baby I would be more willing, but this is hard for me.




Have any of you experienced this? What did you do?

12 comments:

Mz.Elle said...

Oh that's heartbreaking,I'm sorry:(

Anonymous said...

Hi Kris...I feel for you! My sister had a HORRIBLE time with thrush and the chunks of nipple tissue falling off. She ended up going to a dermatologist that specializes in women's stuff and finally (after months of suffering) got it cleared up. She paid for it out of pocket and was so glad she did - her doctor was a huge horses' rear end about it too. I just left her a message asking for the dr's name for you!

Jen :)

QueenieCarly said...

I'm going to do everything I can to help you come up with some sort of solution here, Krisitin. It's awful the way you're feeling and I just know it would be even worse if you gave up breastfeeding now. I will get back to you. I'm going to send this link on out to my breastfeeding gurus. The one suggestion I would make right now is to try and get in touch with your midwife again. Sure, you're not about to give birth again, but I'm sure she'd still consider you a patient and might be more willing than your mean old doc to try to help you out.

And by the way, the page looks fantastic!

Anonymous said...

Hi Kris -
Me again...I talked with my sister. The dermatologist she saw was Dr. Barbara Martin and her # is (858) 292-5101. Michelle said that the inital consultation and the follow appt cost her about $200, but it was worth every penny of it for the relief she got. She was able to get the meds the doctor prescribed through her insurance, so all she paid for was the office visit.
Hope this helps!
Jen

Anonymous said...

Hi,
I am a friend of Carly's, and I went through a very similar thing to you. My first two thoughts are 1) you may need to take a longer course of Diflucan to have any effect and 2) it may be exzema, not thrush. I was misdiagnosed for over 2 years, had a very simlar experience to yours and fianlly saw a dermatologist who took one look at it, said, "That's not thrush, that's exzema" and in three days of treatment it was all better! Good luck! I'm not sure where you are located, but you may want to find a different doctor that cares about the same things as you....

What's For Dinner? said...

Hang in there Wonder Woman, I know you know what to do. Sounds like everyone has some good suggestions, it may be exzema like Robyn said but I don't think so if Brady is affected to. (at least in his mouth). I have been praying and I know God is going to clear it up and your beautiful baby and you will be back to peaceful bonding!! Enjoy every moment.
Love you.

Unknown said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Ginny said...

I can't help but I love the new background....wonderwoman, how true. ha ha.

Pendullum said...

I feel your pain...
I breast fed Scooter until she wastwoyears three months... But who is counting??? I was so glad to get my girls back...
anyway I digress...
What helps is the high grade grade glyceryn you can only get it through health food shops..It is expensive as all heck at the time... But it last forever...a few of us bought some and divided ...It keeps... and later can be used for lip balm as it is the only thing that works for me...(I have had it for 7 years and it still keeps, I still use if for my lips now)
And as for snacks to help for in between... My daughter loved the health food rice cakes...
She also loved this stuff called Chloryphyl... She was a freak... But would not take ANY milk type supplement in a bottle and beleive me I tried all bipples, all bottle shapes.. But Chlorophyl she would take... She also would eat grapes with out the skins...

Caro said...

I am feeling bad for you and also laughing at your post.

First off, I found this on the internet. Not sure how well it works. I'll do a copy and paste.

Thrush Oil

8 drops each lavender and tea tree essential oils

2 tablespoons vegetable oil

Combine ingredients. Gently apply oil to inside of child's mouth with a cotton swab or a clean finger. A nursing mother whose child is suffering from thrush should apply this oil to her nipples so that she and her baby do not pass the illness back and forth.

There's also something I remember my daughter's pediatrician telling me about when we got thrush together. She said it was from the health food store and that I could rub it on my nipples, but to be careful as it would stain everything purple, including the inside of baby's mouth.

It was called Venetian Violet.

Happy Nursing!

Caro said...

My daughter and I got thrush together. It sounds like the pedi and I got thrush together.

Anonymous said...

I remember when I breast fed my daughter ( shes 23 now) lol. My one breast got all cracked and sooo sore. I got a nipple shield and it fit over my nipple and she would nurse with the nipple shield on....and in a few days it started to heal. But I know what you mean about the pain....ohhhh...I can still remember!