A few days ago, I noticed some spots on Faith’s sleeper.
It looked like blood stains but there was no way it could have come from Faith. She had no scratches on her chest. No marks at all. So I thought maybe it was from me? Maybe blood from my breast milk got on her? But no… that wasn’t it. I would have definitely noticed if I was expressing blood. I would have had the same stains on my breast pads. My clothes, breast pads, and nursing bras are all clean. So I just thought that maybe it’s something that got on her clothes while I was doing a load of laundry?
Then again today, I noticed more spots on the same side of another sleeper …
This spot was directly over her nipple. I looked at her left nipple and saw nothing wrong. It wasn’t swollen or red. There were no scratches on it. So the only thing I could think of was that blood was coming directly from her nipple! I felt for any bumps, and she laughed because it tickled, so Faith wasn’t having any pain or discomfort. She seemed completely fine.
I Googled “blood coming from baby’s nipple” to see if I could find any answers, and it turns out that it has happened to lots of babies that are exclusively breastfed . The mother’s hormones are in the breast milk, and the baby is adjusting to these hormones. It doesn’t sound dangerous, and I guess it goes away on its own in time without any problems. However, I read that this is very rare in babies, so I was very worried.
Fortunately today was the day for Faith’s flu booster shot. So while we were there I discussed this with the pediatrician. She said she had never seen this before, and that she wanted to talk with a few other pediatricians about it. Later this evening she called me and said that it should be nothing to worry about. She does believe it is because of hormones, and that it should go away in time. I am keeping an eye on this, and if it persists, or if her other nipple starts to bleed, I will let the pediatrician know.
To all of my mommy readers that have breastfed or are breastfeeding their babies… has this happened to your baby? Does anyone out there have any additional information about this? I would love to hear from you.
Faith did well taking her booster flu shot. She is starting to remember shots :( When we laid her on the table and the nurse wiped her leg with alcohol, Faith’s face changed straight to fear, and her eyes grew big. Poor thing. She cried when she got the shot, but she recovered pretty quickly this time because it was only one injection this time, instead of 3 or 4. One shot, and it took just a few seconds, and then she was in my arms and already calming down. Aaron grabbed a kid’s book to show her, and it helped her stop crying. However, a few minutes into the book and she started crying again out of the blue. She was remembering :( I wish I could take those scary memories away from her.
She is fine now! Back to her big smiles and laughs! My tough girl :)
“I don’t need no stinkin’ band-aid…”
