Mastitis help needed

[melonribena]

Hi everyone,
I've just been diagnosed with mastitis in my left breast.

The gp has given my antibiotics and told me to pump and discard the milk in that breast. I was worried because I'm never very successful with pumping.

I looked it up in my breastfeeding book and that says keep feeding from that breast, the baby will drain it and no infection will be passed on.

Obviously I'd rather keep feeding but don't know. What have anyone else with mastitis done?

Hi, just checked on Kellysmom for you. They recommend more regular feeding but suggest milk may taste different so baby may be more reluctant. Here's the link:
kellymom.com/bf/concerns/mother/mastitis/

I kept feeding from the infected side. I had a blocked duct and oh the relief when dd had a big feed

I kept on feeding - wasn't much fun, but it did help a lot. The antibiotics didn't seem to effect how much he took! He was pretty greedy - in fact both were! Good luck.

Thank you! I'm going to carry on feeding. I'm so glad I asked!

Also try lots of massaging in that breast while feeding, and also in hot shower and bath that worked for me, hope you feel better soon.
Oh and try feeding in different positions to 'drain' different bits of the breast, I was rubbish at expressing too!

Definitely keep feeding, your baby will be better at clearing any lumps with a big feed than a pump would be. Between feeds what helped me was filling a nappy with warm water and putting it in my bra. Sounds very wierd but really helped. As did massaging lumps in the shower right before a feed. Also I second what someone else said about feeding in different positions, I've done dangle feeding before where baby lies on bed and you are on all fours and dangle boob into mouth, sounds bizarre and made my dh look at me very strangely but it totally cleared a nasty lump out!!