What does a blocked milk duct feel like?

[LostInTransmogrification]

woke up this morning with right breast feeling bruised, still felt bruised for the first few feeds of the day. The bruised feeling has pretty much gone now, thank goodness but I have a largish lump in my right breast and was wondering if it was a blocked milk duct.

Sound like it, yes.

Warm bath, lots of massaging, try to feed as much as possible from that side. If you start feeling achey/flu-ish it may have developed into mastitis, which may need medical assistance.

Cointreau, thanks for replying. Crap, I have been feeling achey today, thought I had caught something going round. I'm feeling ok now but will phone nhs direct in the morning. I'm probably lucky to get to 15 months without getting mastitis but hopefully it isn't as I have only fed from this side since 9 mo so if this one goes kaput DS might end up weaned off bf earlier than he wants :-(

You can keep feeding with mastitis - in fact, you ought to, as stopping feeding will make it worse.

If you are feeling achy and feverish, you should see a medic. But if you feed with your child's chin to the lump (and yes, that will involve feeding in a weird position - at his age, you can maybe lie back on the bed, and put him at the angle you want, on top of you?) that often will clear up a lump very quickly.

OP, would you believe I successfully bf three DCs without any problems at all, and only came down with mastitis the week I stopped feeding DC3. Typical! I ended up needing antibiotics in the end, very sore, but definitely keep feeding. I ended up with DD2 lying on her back with me leaning forward over her, massaging away with my spare hand to reduce the lump.

Hope it resolves soon.

Thanks both, I have massaged it with the showerhead with lots of hot water as just doing it manually didn't seem to make a difference, the lump has gone down but is still there and I still feel tender with a largish red patch of skin which I don't know if it is down to the massage or mastitis. Anyway I have phoned my local out of hours service and I have an appointment this afternoon. He is a big solid boy and to get his chin on the lump I will have to fling him over my shoulder! I'm feeling a bit teary at the thought of stopping bfing which is probably making me worry about this more than I should! DS has always been a milk monster and looks for it straight away when he wakes up so it would (will) be horribleif I have to stop before he is ready too (wibbles pathetically!)

Ah it's the upper outer side? Can you try him lying on the bed and you kneeling over him?

lilham I will give it a go but I'm not sure what he'll make of it! It is deffo mastitis though and I have some flucloxacillin to take so hopefully it won't last long.