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EAT => Breast Feeding => Topic started by: loulou's mummy on May 20, 2006, 22:20:44 pm

Title: Blood in breastmilk
Post by: loulou's mummy on May 20, 2006, 22:20:44 pm
hi I have had some nipple pain today due to a small cut which made it agony when my dd fed.  I have just expressed and the bm was ruby red with blood.  Any advice on what I should do? my dd is 6 months old and this is the first time I have had any blood.  It looked very scary!
Title: Re: Blood in breastmilk
Post by: Petunia on May 20, 2006, 23:43:58 pm
The blood itself is harmless to your baby so don't worry about that.
Title: Re: Blood in breastmilk
Post by: Joanne on May 21, 2006, 08:11:02 am
Hi
I don't know if this is your problem but I will tell you what happened to me and you can decide  :)
When I was in hospital when my son was born I has quite cracked nipples and it was quite painful to feed him. I will always remember sitting in the feeding room and I was in the middle of trying to feed him and he suddenly vomited milk everywhere. The milk had red streaks of blood through it. I was very worried and quickly called the nurse over. The nurse explained that it was nothing to worry about as the blood came from my nipples and certainly wouldn't hurt my baby. Another time at home he came off and had blood around his mouth but again i was reassured that it was just blood from my cracked nipple.
Hope this helps. Good luck!

Kind Regards Jo :)
Title: Re: Blood in breastmilk
Post by: yaya on May 21, 2006, 08:14:17 am
Yep this happened to me too, scray but nothing to worry about! Maybe get ur doc to check u over tho!
Title: Re: Blood in breastmilk
Post by: daisymelan on May 21, 2006, 16:45:35 pm
This has never happened to me and I was once told that your baby will actually throw up the blood if it is hurting your dd.  But in saying that, I know I would contact my dr or a breastfeeding consultant to be safe.
Title: Re: Blood in breastmilk
Post by: naunmom on May 24, 2006, 16:26:32 pm
This happened to me with my first lo due to cracked nipples. It freaked me out too - but it won't harm the baby.  I *think* - but I'm not sure if I'm remembering correctly ... if your baby ingests some blood ... you may also see it in the stool.

I also agree with the suggestion to contact the lactation consultant.
Title: Re: Blood in breastmilk
Post by: Marisa's Mom on May 24, 2006, 17:46:15 pm
Sounds like me in my first month of breastfeeding. I got off to a very rocky start due to my problematic inverted right nipple. DD couldn't nurse well on that side, I was in pain, and it was sore and cracked. It was just painful whenever she tried to nurse on the right side. One day DD started nursing on the right side, then detached & cried. I looked down to see blood. Eeeks! She obviously must not have liked the taste of blood. It was scary thinking oh no, how do I feed my baby?

What I did was let her continue nursing on the good left side. I pumped milk from the right side for a few days so I'd have milk to feed her, plus I had to get my milk supply up since this was in the first few weeks after birth. Once my right nipple healed, we got her to latch on again and everything was well again.

You should talk to a lactation consultant if you are still concerned. Good luck!
Title: Re: Blood in breastmilk
Post by: owelley on May 24, 2006, 17:48:22 pm
I'm joining this club.  I was in tears and would have to hold back a HOWL whenever my dd would latch on!!
Title: Re: Blood in breastmilk
Post by: moppiemom on May 27, 2006, 08:29:41 am
A suggestion I got when I first starting bfing (and had VERY sore cracked and bleeding nipples) may help you now. Always start your feeding on the good nipple for the first few minutes so that your lo's hunger is alleviated a little and the sucking isn't so hard by the time you put them on the sore breast.
As the others have said, I've heard that the blood doesn't harm them at all, it's just scary...but you do need to allow yourself to heal.

Gael