What the hell is causing this pain?

[Helgathehairy]

DD is 11.5 months. I've had a relatively straight forward breast feeding experience with her (painful at the start and a period where I thought I'd have to stop because of her biting but we came out the other side)

2 days ago I started feeling like I was being stabbed with tiny knives when she was feeding off my left breast. I've had a look and there's a tiny crack close to where the nipple joins the breast. It looks way too small to be causing the amount of pain I'm experiencing but I'm wondering if maybe her teeth are hitting off it or resting on it or something.

Any ideas or suggestions on what this could be? How best do I treat it?

[Writerwannabe83]

I once had a very small crack at the base of my nipple and despite looking pretty insignificant the pain was excruciating when DS latched on. I'd actually have tears in my eyes and having to bite on my lip to stop myself swearing. I kept applying Lasinoh but as DS was feeding frequently the crack had no chance to heal.

In the end I made the decision to solely feed off my other breast and express on the painful side to prevent engorgement or pose any risk to my supply. It was so, so lovely not having to feed off the cracked side and within 24-36 hours the crack had healed sufficiently enough to allow me to start feeding on that side again. It was completely pain free when I re-started, the nipple had just needed a chance to recover and fix itself

[NotQuiteCockney]

Would this be her top teeth, or her bottom ones?

The top teeth can easily leave little indentations. If you are super careful about latch (make sure her nose is clear of the breast, basically. If her nose is touching your breast, shift her in the direction of her feet) that can help.

Otherwise, you can use a strip of skin tape to cover that bit of your nipple during feeds. Also, have you tried wet wound healing between feeds?

[Helgathehairy]

Well I kept her off the sore breast for about 16 hours and just fed her off it there and it feels lots better.

[Lilliput]

Thrush can sometimes cause deep breast pain.

[NotQuiteCockney]

Thrush isn't ever (afaik) one-sided.