MILK BLISTER

This is an uncommon and trivial condition. Milk gets under the superficial layers of the skin of the nipple, and you see a small white blister. It usually cures itself after a few days and the skin which covers the blister lifts off. While it lasts, feeding from the nipple may hurt.

In most instances, even very sore nipples can be treated successfully. Occasionally, however, the condition is resistant to treatment, or recurs at short intervals. This most commonly happens with a nipple of very poor protractability. In these rare cases, it may be better to stop breast-feeding instead of going through many painful attempts and failures (provided that artificial feeding can be done safely).

Sore nipples always test a mother’s motivation for breast-feeding. If bottle-feeding is feasible, it is up to the mother to decide how much trouble she is willing to take to continue breast-feeding.