Help with mastitis and fever

[harrysdad2011]

Hi MN's , I need some advice

My wife and I have our 2 week old son, he's growing, now above his birth weight ( 8lb 13) and is feeding often, 2 - 4 hours.

Mum has had two bouts of fever, one was very bad, in bed all day, no energy or anything, She actually remarked she felt so poorly, she felt as she would die :(

She has some hard lumps on her breast and is massaging, hot showers and baths , but they don't go down. She is taking paracetamol, ibropufen and now has an antibiotic to take ( the MW spoke over the phone and got a doctor to sign a prescription) however, she is really concerned the fever will return and wants to now introduce bottle feeding and get the baby off the breast completely, its getting her down. She does not have any obvious red marks on her chest and we have tried him feeding in a different position, ( side on, rather than cross cradle in front)

I'm fully supporting her in anything she does, I want some advice on if you would advise changing over to bottle, if so how fast we can do it and how to get the breast milk production down and reduce the chance of the fever coming back.
The HV and MW's when asked, wont say how to stop BF'ing, which is very annoying.

I did do some searching before I posted , any guidance appreciated

Your poor wife, I had mastitis when DS was 8 days old and it was grim.

With regard to stopping, the basic idea is to do it gradually, eg give one bottle per day for a few days, then 2 bottles for a few days etc until you're on all bottles. HOWEVER she really needs to get completely better from the mastitis before she cuts down breastfeeding. Frequent feeding to empty the breast is the quickest way to get better - antibiotics alone won't do it (I know from experience!)

The other thing to be aware of is that mastitis does make you feel really low - I've had it more than once and always felt like giving up but once i was better, I wanted to carry on. You're not in a good state to make such a major decision when you're poorly and low.

As you asked for advice, I would say keeping breastfeeding until she's completely better, then think about all the pros and cons and make a decision about switching to bottles when she's having a good day.
I would also advise she sees a breastfeeding counsellor or peer supporter, or calls oneof the helplines.
0300 100 0212 National Breastfeeding helpline.
0300 330 0771 NCT breastfeeding helpline
0845 120 2918 La Leche League

Hope this helps :)
I sympathise greatly

a bit more to add...

here is some good info on mastitis.

How long is the course of antibiotics she has been prescribed? it should be 10-14 days. 7 is not enough (can provide reference if you want).

For me the main things for getting better were rest (staying in bed) and feeding as much as possible off the affected breast.

Seeing a breastfeeding counsellor as there could be something she could change in her breastfeeing technique to make her less prone to mastitis. With good management it is largely avoidable.

By the way the helplines will be able to give advice on how to stop bf if that's what she wants

its a 7 day course. I'll be sure to get her to the docs before it ends to get a repeat.
thanks for the advice on the numbers, we'll give them a call, really do apprecatie your help. i'll be sure to show her this thread, it wil cheer her up to see people are kind enough to help