What to do if your child has inverted nipples

When a little princess is born in the family, the parents love her so much that they want to give the whole world to her. Especially as the child grows up day by day, any change in the child's body will worry the parents. Parents get very nervous when they notice their little girls showing signs of inverted nipples. In response to this situation, what should parents do?

1. The harm of inverted nipples

Inverted nipples in baby girls are a headache for many mothers. You should know that nipple defects can easily lead to breastfeeding difficulties after childbirth. Inverted nipples are not easy to clean, easily hide dirt, and cause local infection. The inflammation can also spread to the mammary gland and cause inflammation.

2. Measures for nipple inversion

So, what should we do if a baby girl has nipple defects? For inverted nipples, parents can perform nipple massage, that is, pull the breast several times each time. Because the baby's skin is delicate, the movements should be gentle and pay attention to local cleaning. Generally, after this treatment, most inverted nipples can be corrected. Only a few children with deeper nipples require surgical treatment. Parents must not squeeze the baby's small nipples with their hands to avoid causing breast tissue infection.

3. Causes of inverted nipples

Inverted nipples are mainly congenital, but can also be caused by trauma or surgery, breast tumors, and fibrosis after mastitis. The main reason for congenital inverted nipples in babies is the poor development of the smooth muscles of the nipple and areola. These muscle fibers are pulled inward, and the lack of supporting tissue under the nipple causes inverted nipples in babies.

If a baby's nipple is inverted and can be restored with a little squeezing or pulling, it is called mild inverted nipple, also known as reversible inverted nipple.

This type of nipple retraction can be corrected through non-surgical conservative treatment. The best time to treat infant nipple retraction is before marriage or in early pregnancy. The specific methods include manual traction and instrument traction:

Manual traction is to squeeze the inverted part of the nipple out of the skin surface by yourself. The thumb and index finger pinch the nipple horizontally or vertically, and pull the nipple outward continuously or intermittently. Mechanical traction is to use a manual or electric breast pump to suck out the inverted part of the nipple using the principle of negative pressure. The nipple can also be sucked and pulled continuously or intermittently.

For those with mild nipple inversion and a long nipple neck, gauze can be used to bandage and fix the nipple. It will usually return to normal in two to three months. For those with deeply inverted nipples and short nipple necks, in addition to bandaging with gauze, you must also use adhesive tape to pull the inverted nipples and then fix the tape on the breasts.

Infant nipple retraction cannot be ignored, and effective treatment to reduce its harm is the most important thing. There is another point that mothers should pay attention to for their babies. In fact, sometimes invagination usually occurs on both sides at the same time, but it can also occur on one side.