Hello all,

I had a terrible time trying to breastfeed DS (now 3). I saw midwives, GP, ABA counsellors, private LC, the works - latch was "good", doing everything right, but at 5 months my nipples were still raw and worse than raw, practically destroyed. So I weaned him.

Fast forward to last winter and I visit the GP for a (seemingly) unrelated matter (breastfeeding the furthest thing from my mind). After talking about my new condition, we put two and two together and she suggests Raynaud's. I completely broke down in her office. I blamed myself all this time for failing to breastfeed, for seeking support and still not being able to master it. For giving up when I should have persisted. When the almost certain scenario was undiagnosed Raynaud's of the nipple, causing the tips to literally die and fall away.

So now, I'm hopefully going to have another baby soon, and I'm already thinking about what I can do to breastfeed successfully next time.

The only thing that seemed to help at all with DS was nipple shields. After some research, now I know why: when he pulled off the breast, the warm milk and residual heat in the shield would protect my nipple from the abrupt change in temperature, preventing the blood vessels from constricting. At the time, however, all I was told was that I had to get him off the shields because they would reduce my supply - so I spent so long trying to feed without the shield, which of course affected my supply anyway because of the nipple damage.

So! Does anyone here have any positive experiences breastfeeding with Raynaud's or vasospasms?

And does anyone have positive stories about long-term breastfeeding with a nipple shield?

Thank you!