TMI - mastitis & pus

[DanceToTheIslandBeat]

I have got a 10 mo DD2 who is bf on demand (DD1 was EBF, never any issues) - yesterday I very rapidly developed an tender r breast and felt terrible with shakes, aches & fever. I got seen by the out of hours GP last night and am on Co-Amoxiclav.

My breast is now hard, red, very painful and I am in bed feeling truly awful. I just had a hot bath and expressed LOADS of pus from the right breast. Do I really keep offering this to DD (who seems not to be latching properly that side and only feeding briefly before coming off again)? Do I keep expressing the pus out, or should I not muck about too much? Will I need other antibiotics or do I just wait for these to kick in?

TIA.

Oh dear, poor you, that sounds pretty awful.

IMO, the pus won't hurt your LO but if she's not latching on well anyway then you could just hand express that breast. You do need to keep removing milk from that breast though so do keep going either with feeding or expressing.

You should have a course of 10-14 days ABs to really knock it on the head, otherwise you put yourself at risk of getting it again, or worse getting an abscess.

Hope you can get some rest- you will really need to get to your bed and sleep and feed/express ideally every 2 hours.

Thank you! I do feel pretty sorry for myself

Am just staying in bed, thank goodness for the BH/half term - plenty of extra hands around.

The antibiocs are only a week's course - should i got to my own gp when it opens?

I think you would need a longer course, but might be worth checking with the drugs helpline at the Breastfeeding Network, see here

May also be worth considering a course of probiotics otherwise you may be at risk of getting thrush.

Hope you feel better soon.