Help - recurrent blocked ducts in same place.

[Angelico]

Hi, just looking for some advice really.

Have been breast-feeding for nearly 6 weeks and on the whole it's fine BUT for the last couple of weeks the same ducts have been getting blocked over and over. They are at the top of my right breast and now on the inside of same breast. I'm on antibiotics as I was getting inflamed last week and OOH doc thought I was borderline for mastitis. Boobs settled really quickly and I was very pleased! BUT this afternoon they started getting sore and hard again. I'm still on the AB so don't think it is infection.

Baby is a good latcher and feeder but I'm getting fed up with the recurring pain. Did this happen to anyone else and what did you do? And did you find out what caused it?

Hi, I had recurrent blocked ducts with DS1, and have already had a couple with DS2 (although I'm finding them easier to deal with this time). I think in my case they were related to me having an over-supply, plus one particular duct was particularly prone to them. I stopped getting them with DS1 when he was around 4mo, perhaps because my supply settled down and/or our latch improved as he got bigger. Kellymom has some good suggestions to consider here. I hope there's something useful there and you get it sorted soon.

Thanks Redkites. Did you find any tips particularly useful? And did you ever try the Lecithin supplements?

Bumping.

i used to get this a lot, and what helped me was combing my breast with a wide toothed comb, from right up under my armpit the very top of my breasts etc down towards the nipple, press firmly but not hard iyswim? it always cleared blockages and i just used to do it whenever i could.

also check your bra and any clothing to see if anything is pressiing in, even your arm pressing into your breast tightly can sometimes feed it, and yes trying differnt feeding postions can help, ie lying down and even kneeling over baby so gravity helps tho your baby is a bit little for that!

I didn't take lecithin supplements, although I think I did get as far as learning the correct pronunciation(!), and was going to see if my local health food shop had them. I think I've read of other mums on here taking them, so hopefully you'll get some replies to your other thread, and if not, it might be worth doing a search for old threads.

For me, I think the blocked ducts are related to oversupply, so the thing that helped most was time (although if I get them as much this time [DS2 is 3wo] I might also take more action to manage the oversupply). I think I did go through a patch of doing one feed a day on the problem side using rugby hold (I do cross cradle/cradle normally) which might have helped drain different ducts better. I also noticed one of my bras was applying some pressure in the area where I got them, so stopped wearing that one - this didn't stop the blocked ducts, but I expect it meant I got fewer of them than I would otherwise. Lastly, I got better at spotting and treating blocked ducts more quickly, which made them less of an issue, and tended to mean I cleared them more quickly.

God they're back again. I am so pissed off!!!

as well as clothes causing blockages, other things can press in as well- I used to have a problem with the straps of the baby back pack carrier thing

I used heat pads - the ones that you can but for muscular pain- not sure how its works but just did the trick. Long time ago now so not sure why I came to use them probably off the Internet.

Buy not but

Tonight they appeared really suddenly out of the blue after being clear for a couple of weeks (after 2 courses of antibiotics). I have:
fed and expressed like mad
had a hot bath
massaged and combed boob
taken lecithin capsule and Ibuprofen

Haven't been wearing bra in bed in case that was the culprit. I've just had enough. Baby is 8 weeks this week and really wanted to feed till at least 3 months but everything else is going so well and only BFing woes are causing misery. But in between when it's going well it's great. Am just pissed off with it.