Feeding from one breast only at 5 months and later implications?

[midori1999]

I keep getting mastitis in my left breast, my baby is 5 months and I'm on my 6th bout, although having finished the antibiotics on Friday, I can feel it flaring up again. I've been referred to the breast clinic to see if they can find a cause.

I really want to keep BF, I can't imagine anything else now, but the mastitis is a nuisance. I was wondering (if breast clinic finds nothing) about drying up my left side and feeding only from the right? Would that work at this stage and my right breast then produce enough milk?

Also, if feeding from one side only is an option, would that have any implications if I were to become pregnant and then want to BF a newborn before DD was weaned?

Thanks.

Breastfeeding on one side is a viable option. Lots of women worldwide only feed on one side (eg sari wearing women).

You could force your baby to feed from the other side - five months is old enough to not worry about starving. You could also express.

Your breasts will produce as much milk as you need, even if tandem nursing.

I guess things might be a bit clearer about how you proceed once you've been to the clinic midori.

Maybe they can get to the bottom of the problem of this recurrent mastitis. I'm assuming you've looked at the usual things such as a course of antibiotics that wasn't long enough to knock it on the head or obstruction/ latching problems on that side.

As pp says, it's perfectly possible to feed off one side only (have been doing that for months now) but I'm guessing that your milk production would 'start again' in both breasts if you went on to be pregnant again. Somebody like Truthsweet would be good to ask, star tandemmer that she is.

You called Crikey?

It's perfectly possible to bf on one side only. This is assuming you don't have any supply issues such as insufficient glandular tissue or have had breast surgery like a reduction or enlargement on the side you are planning on feeding from.

If you do get pg while bfing on one side only, the process of preparing the breasts for lactating will happen regardless of whether only one is being used (this is called Lactogenesis I and generally speaking the high levels of progesterone released during pg inhibit supply so depending on the age of your DD you may have to add in supplementary feeds).

When the baby is born and the placenta is delivered the next stage of milk production is triggered. This would mean both breasts start lactating again (or supply would increase a great deal!).

Have you had mastitis with any other children (if you have them that is), is the breast clinic going to look into possible causes of the reoccurring mastitis?

Thankyou. DD currently does feed from both sides. She favours the right but we get round that by different positioning. (rugby ball hold, laying down)

I have had breast surgery twice, both enlargements. I had one child before the first surgery, two in between and three children since the second op. (one set of twins who we lost but who I expressed for until then). I've never had mastitis before but the longest I managed to BF for was three weeks and that was exclusively expressing.

I did have problems with latch on my left side initially, my nipple was coming out lipstick shaped, but I am really careful about latching onto that side now. HV at BF group thinks latch is fine. I do have some cracks in that nipple still, but i had really bad cracks that bled at the start and assumed the cracks now were 'scarring' as they're healed compared to what they were like and not sore or anything. I keep trying to get to a LLL meet but its not compatible with school times as my children finish early on that day of the week. I have large implants and am wondering if that is causing the problem.

I am lucky not to have any supply problems, I actually had oversupply at the start and still have plenty of milk now, even though my supply has regulated. Is the surgery likely to mean one breast couldn't cope?

I was thinking that the surgery might have damaged a duct or that one of the ducts might have been displaced/moved making it difficult to drain fully or the implant might be pressing on a duct again causing difficulties in draining.

I am in no way an expert on such matters so they may not even be a possibility due to the type of surgery you had but it might be worth discussing it with the clinic.

I really don't know whether the surgery means you wouldn't be able to produce a full supply on one side, I would have thought that a reduction would make it less likely than an implant but I guess it might depend on the placement of the implants or possibly the size/shaped of them.

Sorry I don't have more concrete answers. I have access to a group of IBCLCs/BFCs that I could ask if you'd like? If so PM me and I'll arrange this (don't worry if you don't want me to do this, I won't be offended )

I have BF DC4 from pretty much one side only sinec she was a month old. She is now 8 mths and was EBF until I introduced solids at 6mths.

Her latch was never good on the left breast and I repeatedly got cracked and sore nipples, after about 4 weeks I offered the left less frequently and until about three weeks ago she was only having one feed a day from that breast (I feed on demand so probably do 8 feeds in a 24 hour period).

The only issue is that I have been left with rather lopsided breasts the left is 2 cup sizez smaller and noticeably so under a tight top. because I am very vain I have strated feeding from the left breast again to see if it will rectify itself and now that DD is older she seems much more comfortable feeding from that side. Supply has reastablished almost fully.