Nipple Cheese

If you’ve ever been pregnant and don’t know about nipple cheese, it might be because you’ve forgotten about this side effect of pregnancy, very much like how you forget the real pain of labor once it’s over. Or, you may not know of it because you’ve never had it. Not every woman experiences this during pregnancy.

If you’re still scratching your head, wondering just WTF I’m talking about, I’ll tell you. Nipple cheese is a collection of a white or yellowish stuff that builds up in between the cracks on your nipples. It’s usually comprised of body oils from sebaceous glands, dead skin cells and/or leakage of colostrum.

Now wait a minute… cracks? “What cracks?” you may ask.

During my first pregnancy, I was alarmed when I noticed my nipples cracking up. They broke apart into lots of little sections that most resemble taste buds. “What’s going on here? Psoriasis? Dermatitis? Skin Cancer?” I later learned that my milk ducts were coming to a head. Did you know that a woman’s nipple has between 20 to 50 milk ducts and milk can squirt out of each one of them? I foolishly thought that the milk would neatly come out of one hole. So, in these crevices between the milk ducts, you can get nipple cheese build up, even after pregnancy. I still get it and my baby’s almost four years old.

I thought about posting a pic of my cracked nipple, with said cheese, but thought better of it. Too gross. And, if I did, you might expect me to post pictures of my vagina when I talk about cheeseburger crotch. We won’t go there.