Masitis nightmare - top tips please!

[MrsHumphz]

Hi all,

My baby is 3 months old and exclusively breastfed. He's very large for his age (95th percentile) so is getting plenty of the good stuff. I'm having a nightmare tho'... I'm now on my 3rd bout of mastitis, having also had really bad cracked nipples, thrush in my ducts and (apparently) a pain which the Doctor thinks is painful milk letdown (lasts for about an hour after feeds). It's difficult to separate out all of the different pains!

With the mastitis, I get the full flu-like symptons and have a very sore inflamed red area on the side of one of my breasts. I feel rubbish!

I was wondering if there was anything I was doing wrong to continue getting mastitis, and also if there was anything I could do to stop it reoccuring. I was wondering if the blocked milk ducts were not clearing which was why I kept getting it?? When I don't have thrush or mastitis, I don't find breast feeding painful so don't think this is a latching problem.

Any advice would be much appreciated!!

thanks Mrs H

Hello,
DS is the same - 95th weight percentile & I had mastitis twice too. I don't know about the cracked nipples but I found that what caused my mastitis was that I had too much milk. Does your baby empty your boob after a feed or is there still loads left? You clearly have loads if your baby is thriving so well! I found that to regulate my supply downwards I had to feed DS on the same boob for 2 feeds or in 4-5 hourly intervals. It is called Block Feeding - lots of info if you google it. I can't express because it increases my supply too much and we go back to square one. Since I did the block feeding for a couple of days the milk supply went back to normal & I haven't had mastitis since.
Sorry if this is totally wrong for you but only going from my own experience! I know how rubbish it is to have mastitis so sympathies from here!

Cabbage leaves, in freezer, fit boob lovely really do help, trust me, but the do tend to cook on heat of boob nice smell, not!

Poor you - I've had the dreaded mastitis a few times and it is awful. Have you been prescribed antibiotics?
The only thing I can suggest is to see a BF counsellor and maybe check your latch?? (as you've already suggested)
Good luck.

Poor you, have you got mastitis now? My top tips are:

Have a read of this

and speak to a bfing counsellor.

And good luck.

O yes - I have it now! The worst one yet... but have antibiotics so hopefully feel better soon.

Jmarm - the oversupply makes a lot of sense. I was worrying that he wasn't getting enough as he has a full (expressed) bottle of 9 oz at 10pm and wants a full feed 3 hours later so I tried to up the supply during the day which might have kicked all this off.

Thanks for the website. Very interesting.

Thanks v much everyone. Good to know there's others out there!!

I've had mastitis and posting on here saved me from completely losing the plot! If you do a search you'll find lots of advice. My top tips would be:

1. Do see a bf counsellor or at least telephone the NCT helpline (face to face is much better though). They will be able to check your latch. Cracked nipples are a sign of poor latch (your LO hanging off the ends of them which makes them sore). The cracks allow bacteria in which can cause recurring infection aka mastitis.

1. Cake the cracked nipples in lansinoh, they'll feel much better!

1. Check for blocked ducts: is part of your breast not completely emptying? Do you feel little pea-sized lumps anywhere? Milk being "stuck" in the breast also causes mastitis as it seeps from the ducts into the surrounding breast tissue your body treats it as something "foreign" and reacts to it as if it were an infection aka mastitis. Try to adjust your feeding position so your LO's bottom jaw is at the site of the mastitis. Look up "dangle feeding" where you position yourself over your LO. It's recommended for unblocking ducts.

1. Read everything you can on kellymom.com. It knows way more than your average GP!

1. It's ok to take paracetamol and ibuprofen. Ibuprofen works better on the inflamation but paracetamol does the job on the fluey symptoms.

1. Keep posting on here, I was at the end of my tether and was hauled back from despair by some lovely mumsnet sages.

Good luck.

Oh yes - lansinoh. Liquid gold!

Hi MrsH,
My SIL kept getting mastitis and couldn't work out why. Then a lactation consultant told her that the GP hadn't given her a long enough course of antibiotics to knock it on the head.

Just a thought...

Hope you get it sorted soon.

i've been diagnosed with mastitis (7 week old premie baby - 6 weeks early) and also have a small blister in th middle of my nipple. i think it might be a milk blister, but my gp has said it is an infection and has instructed me to stop breastfeeding from that breast, and express.

This is not ideal, obviously, as the pump is much less effective than baby, and means a lot more work, getting pump ready, emptying milk, etc.

id like to know whether i can feed the expressed milk to baby or whether i have to discard it.

I have been reading lots and think i may have overproduction, and im a little worried about recurring mastitis....

please help!