very painful swollen breast....

[mrsmoscow]

I have had mastisis with my ds1 which turned into an abcess which required surgery so I now panicking the same thing is going to happen!

My ds2 is 20 weeks and breastfed but with one dream type formula feed which he's had since 12 weeks.

Should I stop giving him that feed and just feed feed feed with the sore breast or carry on as we've been doing and give him the formula?

I was almost about to drop another feed and replace it with formula as I want to give up breastfeeding in next month or so

[Janoschi]

Er... not the biggest expert here (9 weeks of BF and counting!) but I also had mastitis on week 2 and it was awful. My HV suggested feeding just from that breast but the result was mastitis in both breasts... just thought I should mention this because I'd hate it to happen to you!

I'm sure someone Deeply Experienced will come along in a bit with regards to the formula thing...!

[marzipananimal]

I think it would be worth feeding from the poorly boob instead of giving the formula as regularly emptying the breast is the way to get rid of mastitis (though you may need anti-biotics too - have you been to the doctor?). Once you're better you can go back to the formula.

kellymom has a good page on mastitis

I can see why you would want to keep giving the formula as you're trying to wind down the bf but you may well find the mastitis makes your supply drop a bit anyway (this has happened to me, though it has picked up again as I was ebf). For me though the priority would be to get better and not get another abscess.

Sympathy though - mastitis sucks x

[TheRealMBJ]

Do you have any flu like symptoms or a fever?

If so you need to go see your GP for some antibiotics.

Also, you do need to empty the affected breast as well as you can. You could try dropping the ff for now and feed from the affected side instead as week as using a warm flannel before the feed.

This type of thing usually starts with a blocked duct and this could be caused by numerous things. Do you carry your hand bag on that side, does your bra fit really, really well or do you perhaps wear underwire bras?

[mrsmoscow]

Hi, thanks for responses.

Just looked at kellymom and found some really useful stuff.

This is the least preferred side for my son and I sometimes find myself holding the breast to make it easier for him so maybe that has contributed to it?

Am on fluxocacillin due to my previous abcess

[TheRealMBJ]

Are you on the fluclox as a prophylaxis? If so, if you do feel like you are getting mastitis proper, you still need to go get antibiotics (a different type) as the bugs may be resistant to the fluclox.