HELP HELP HELP! I passed a blood clot while breast feeding!

[AnitaRFrith]

Tonight I finally got my baby to nurse.  He was 2 months old on the 4th.  I put a baby bottle nipple over my nipple to get him to nurse.  I tried two kinds of nipple shields and it never worked.  He ws getting milk... and I was not hurting at all.  When I took the nipple off I freaked when I saw a little blood clot inside the nipple.  Is this normal?  I'm pretty freaked out by it... ANY advise will help!  Anita

[BfingIsNormal]

Was the blood inside the bottle nipple? Or on the tip of your nipple?

Baby bottle nipples aren't made to cover a human nipple. It would be a concern that  baby would be unable to get a good latch with a bottle nipple. It sounds like you've been working really hard to get your baby back to the breast, and using the bottle nipple helped your baby successfully nurse. I hesitate to suggest trying something different since that worked for you, but if it wasn't effective and it caused some kind of nipple trauma, maybe it might be a good idea to try a different way? Could you try the nipple shield again? Think--was there anything other than the bottle nipple that was different about this attempt? What shape was the bottle nipple? Nipple shields come in different sizes, perhaps you could use a longer or shorter shield and that would help?

Have you contacted an IBCLC or your local LLL Leader?

I would also suggest searching "back to the breast" for some good information. :)

[tiredbuthappy]

was the clot big? any visible sores on the nipple?

when you pump, it is very common to get bleeding sores. chances are it was just a result of that. Or, like the previous poster said, it may be due to the bottle nipple you were using. The blood will not effect your baby, but take a close look at your nipples and make sure they're ok. Sometimes I didn't even notice the sores right away. One groggy morning I had pumped for 5 minutes before noticing the milk was pink. I panicked and called my LC right away. She assured me that the milk is OK for baby (a nursing baby would have gotten the blood without me knowing it).

[AnitaRFrith]

the clot was on my nipple and there was a little bit of blood inside if the bottle nipple.  I noticed that there is a tiny little black dot on my nipple.  The clot was small... smaller than a dime.  The bottle nipple was the size used in vent air bottles.  It was a colic nipple... it has 3 holes.  I have tried 2 kinds of nipple shields.  Nothing worked.  My baby wants to nurse... I have just being tring to figure out how.  It just freaked me out when I saw the blood.