Very bad blocked ducts

[anonMum2]

Had DC 4 days ago and started off wth BF perfectly. However, yesterday morning noticed I was getting engorged and midwife didn't say anything about it even though I brought it up. Last night, it was SO painful and there are blocked ducts everywhere. Today I've started the hot flanel and massage routine but it's really slow going. DC has been having to have tops ups.. LOADS of them despite only being 4 days old he is so hungry and I cannot give him enough milk even though he is on my breast 2-4 hours at a time.

Anyway, I massaged one of my breasts this afternoon and there was a distinct POP sensation and it felt like one of the blocked milk ducts had popped. Is this right? Should I be doing this with all my blocked milk ducts or is this harmful?!

Any advise appreciated from a very sleep deprived and desperate mum.

Ps. there are BIG solid lumps all over breasts but the worse bits are right under my armpit. OUCH and :(

I don't know about the popping but I got blocked ducts - yes a really enormous lumpy boob for a couple of days. The only way to alleviate it besides hot flannels etc was to let DD suck the he** out of it, however much it hurt. A long time ago now but I do sympathize

Oh dear hang in there! Is this your first child? Have you tried a warm shower or bath too? Just let your DC feed often as you can handle and top up with formula, the more you feed the better. Try to relax too and if you have to give a few bottle top ups its not a big deal in the long run.

Echo the advice above. Feed, feed, feed (so tops up won't be helping that at all, I'm afraid) and hot shower/bath/compress when he isn't feeding.

Don't know about the popping bit but massaging in shower helped me.

If you start to feel "fluey" get to the GP as it could be mastitis.

PS Forgot to say "Congratulations"

Hang on in there!

You need to clear then milk from the breast and unblock the ducts and the best way to do this is to feed, feed, feed. If you don't the situation will get worse and you may end up with mastitis. Stop the formula top ups as this will make the situation worse. Massage is also a good way to go as are cabbage leaves straight from the fridge in your bra. It sounds as if your milk has just come in and this is causing the engorgement - again feeding is the best solution. If you are very uncomfortable you can empty both breasts using a pump and go from there.

You say your ds is feeding for 2-4 hours at a time, this is more of a worry to me as it sounds as if he may not be latched on properly - are you sore? Is he weeing? How many poos has he done in the last 24 hrs and what colour were they? I would strongly advise you to find your local bf drop in asap and go along and have a chat.

Yup, feed, feed, feed.

Use warmth before feeding, massage during and cold afterwards - I find the Breast Nurse gel pads useful.

If your LO isn't latched & positioned so they get their chin well in, they won't be able to feed efficiently so careful with latch/positioning.

Second child. So frustrating for us because midwife stayed with e for 20 minutes and said latching perfectly fine. It does look and feel fine I have to say. It feels like my nipples just aren't made to breastfeed as it's inverted/flat. I tried expressing today and only managed 5ml in 30 minutes. Sob! Kinda explains why DS has to stay on for 2-4hours to get anywhere near the 60ml that he needs per feed, as we've seen from his cup feeding.

We're thinking of stopping now which is really sad but family comes first. DH and I have not had ANY sleep (I mean nothing!) and DC1 doesn't understand why mummy who is already poorly from EMCS is stuck with baby on the boob ALL day. :( I was really hoping for a different outcome.

Midwife told me that to stop, as I'm only on day 4 to just stop completely rather than slowly stopping. I'm however still thinking of persevering with a few day feeds. Any opinions on this?

So horrible for you! I went through the same in the early days with both DC, and developed mastitis a couple of times. I stuck with the bf though as I felt that the benefits of bfing were worth it. Once the supply and demand thing is established it gets sooo much easier, and I've not had mastitis since my lo was about 3 or 4 wks old - he's now 21 weks. My advice would be to stick with it, but that's really easy to say when it's not me who's got the sore boobies! You really have my sympathies!

Oh, and btw, just cause you're not getting much when you express, doesn't mean he isn't - babies are apparently super efficient at geting the milk out, far superior to a breast pump or hand expressing. As long as he's got wet and dirty nappies, you're doing a grand job!

Expressing takes time to get used to and IME is badly affected by stress, exhaustion and dehydration. Never use it as an indicator of output.

Thank you for replies. From that, we made the decision to bottlefeed at night so we get some sleep as cup feeding doesn't have the same effect.. and then breastfeed and feed and feed during the day. Then my supplies will finally catch up and I could potentially even get rid of the night bottles altogether after a few days/weeks.

However, I completely forgot that by re-introducing the bottle, I've also reintroduced 'bottle biting'. Both my nipples are now horribly sore and bleeding and DC vomitted loads of blood today! Just feeling very disheartened as I'm trying really hard but all plans are back firing. It looks like it's all bottle or all breast for us.

By introducing formula, your supply will drop to adjust to fewer feeds. Night feeds are especially important for upping supply in the early days, so you need to at least be pumping often at night (and why bother tbh?).

If you give a bottle, make sure it's a wide necked one and only let the baby have the teat with a good latching mouth - wide open with tongue down.

I know some people use the little pumps to full out inverted nipples and some people find shields help there.

Congratulations on your new arrival! And real sympathy on the blocked ducts - I had a few when I was feeding at first, and it is really miserable. I'd really recommend talking to a breastfeeding counsellor on one of the phonelines - they have lots of specialist training on breastfeeding, which most midwives won't have. Whatever it is you want to try to do, whether stopping, mix feeding, or getting back to just BF, they will be able to advise you.

There are a number of them, including the NCT phone line which is 0300 330 0771 - you don't need to be a member.

Once again so grateful for all comments! Most blocked ducts are cleared. I made sure baby fed all day and night (as I didn't want supply to dwindle after reading comments). What I don't really understand though, is why I'm still not producing enough for DS2. He is still requiring top up of at least 60ml after most feeds, especially evening and night. He is on boobs 1-2 hours each time every 3 hours when he asks for a feed. But I'm still not producing enough.

Anyhow, I let MIL FF DS for the first time last night as I was exhausted and needed to sort out DS1. Said he only needed up to 60ml top up and to make him 'work' for it, i.e. feed very slowly. When I came back after 5 minutes and had a look, she had fed him 110ml and he wasn't even latched on the bottle properly, i.e. mouth closed tightly round the small teat area. I nearly broke down in tears! Since then DS2's latch on breast has been completely rubbish, he doesn't open his mouth and expect milk to flow in, and when it doesn't he bites my sensitive nipples. Plus he's no longer satisfied with even the little bit I'm giving him as he's expecting 110ml in 5 minutes.

I would really like to stop the bottle now that my sleep and blocked ducts are sorted, but it's impossible as he's still expecting 60-100+ml top up after being on the breast for 2 hours at a time. Is this a common issue?

oh, DS2 threw up three times after that enormouse 110ml feed.

Really try not to top up at the end of feeds, this will make you produce less milk than your baby needs from you. I am no expert but with dd1 I kept topping up and she wanted more and more formula so it was really hard to get back to exclusive breastfeeding and we ended up bottlefeeding. dd2is nearly 4 months and is totally breastfed. Could somebody look after ds1 for a day so you can rest? Just stay in bed/ on the sofa with dc2 and lots of snacks and water and let him feed feed feed for a day or 2! This really helped to boost my supply and I only topped up once or twice this time after dd2 fed constantly for nearly 8 hours! Good luck you are doing a fantastic job

I feel your pain!

feed feed feed despite the pain you are in - it will help get rid of the situation even though it doesn't seem like it at the time.

My other piece of advice is not to bother with hot flannels - they stay hat for only a matter of seconds and so are either next to useless or have to keep being changed. My suggestion instead would be hot water bottle. I found this much more effective. Helped get me through blocked ducts and mastitis.

It is horrible, but try to keep going - it is more than worth it in the end.

Doh - just read last couple of posts and seen that blocked ducts no longer an issue. Sorry for not reading to end!

If he's taking 1-2 hours to feed then he's not latched on properly hence the soreness and the "top up". At 10 days old a baby's tummy is the size of a ping pong ball so your baby's is a bit smaller and hence 60 mls is probably most of his feed.

As your baby is under 10 days old you will still be under the care of your MW and you can demand that they help you with feeding. Ask to speak to the infant feeding coordinator at your local hospital. Give one of the helplines a call and get to a bf drop in for help.

What is making you think that he needs a top-up after feeds?

And to echo what was said earlier, I was crap at expressing but had oversupply issues - it's not a reliable indicator, really :)

Really try to drop the bottle top-ups, won't help your supply or any potential current/future latching issues. Is he really feeding constantly for the whole 1-2 hours or dozing/comfort sucking as well do you think?

I couldn't express for toffee either yet fed 2 babies exclusively to 6 months - one on the 97th Centile so, as Tupperware says, it's really not telling you anything about your supply.

He's so little still. I know it doesn't feel like it but you'll recall from DC1 how quickly things change with babies. It won't be like this forever. Promise

If you can smile at DC1/ask them to sit next to you "for a cuddle"/discuss with them what's happening on Cbeebies you really can keep him/her involved/engaged too.

Definitely push for some RL support/advice too. Good luck!

Developed mastitis now before I even stopped! I had actually decided to stop today. His latches on so badly I cannot bear to feed him anymore! Bloody nipples + mastitis = [cry emoticon]

Fortunately a different midwife came in today who is very into breastfeeding and showed me other ways of latching baby on so he is now on one boob whilst I express the other until it's healed. She told me I have to clear my mastitis/blocked ducts anyhow so might as well feed the baby at the same time.

He's used to FF since the first night in the hospital when the midwives gave him one bottle, therefore has expected a lot ever since. I was so tired so my midwife kept asking us to give him bottles and top-ups. He can be happy on my breast during the day at times(not always), but come 7pm-7am he wants to feed ALL the time unless we top up. If we don't do it he just cries non-stop until his next feed. Not very good for night time feeds as DH and I are completely exhausted.

wincy - he does seem to be sucking all the time, up to 4 hours. I've got flat nipples and top ups mean that when I had express I get drips rather than squirts! :)

sorry, hand express, not had express