Mastitis advice needed please

[laundrylover]

On my second bout this month (opposite side) and have got antibiotics over the phone from docs. However with frequent feeding all the hardness has now gone but the nipple agony when feeding remains. Should I bother starting the ABs or will it just clear up on it's own??
Any advice/experiences welcomed, thanks.

The old chilled cabbage leaf in the bra thing helped alleviate the discomfort a bit for me but only temporarily. I ended up seeing a homeopath who worked wonders - haven't had it since! If you are getting sore nipples, are you sure your baby is latched on properly. I thought I was doing things right until I saw my local midwife - just a slight adjustment meant no more sore nipples!

Mastitis doesn't generally cause sore nipples, just hardness, fever, etc. (If you just had hardness, then maybe it was just a blocked duct?)

Are both nipples hurting, or only one? Is it only when you feed? I suspect latch issues, as cathie says.

I agree. Get someone to check your latch. As your little one grows you will need to think about positioning occasionally to avoid pain.

With mastitis you can avoid antibiotics (and pain) if you catch it early. At the first twinge, or red hot needle sensation, take ibuprofen - then feed at every occasion possible from that side (if necessary expressing a little from the other side to avoid problems developing there). Mastitis is an inflamed milk duct, so swollen on the inside. If you take the anti-inflamatories (quite safe when feeding, avoid if trying to conceive/pregnant) then the swelling is reduced and you can clear the milk through the duct with baby's help - perhaps with a little hand massaging if you feel lumpy. Baby won't mind milk that is a little yoghurty. You only actually need antibiotics if the area has become infected, simple Ibuprofen will clear the problem just as effectively and slightly quicker too.

(I fed both dss for three years each. Had a few episodes of mastitis, always when they had changed their feeding patterns - like starting nursery etc. It's horrid and I took antibiotics first time on the advice of my GP, only to find out the above advice from our wonderful breast feeding clinic second time around. Never needed antibiotics again.)

Good luck.

Thanks all.
It's just the RHS which is sore but was LHS a few weeks ago, both times accompianied by hardness and redness. Took antibiotics but nipple pain continued and then was treated for thrush and all was well.
Now it seems like it's all happening again!
I agree that I am a bit lazy about latch as second timer and also have teeny nipples on HUGE boobs so not text book! Can a bad latch cause such broken glass pain? I have been correcting her to make it less as she has a habit of letting go and then sucking in hard whch made me scream last night. Will try to get to the Breaststart clinic tomorrow to get it checked out.
I will try some Ibruprofen too and not start the ABs.

You poor thing, sounds awful
Are you sure that it isn't thrush? Sounds like I felt a few weeks ago. I had sore nipples that wouldn't heal, pain during feeds and very painful after feeding (sometimes for a couple of hours). Daktarin cream on my nipple allowed it to heal and DD had the oral gel too - it felt better within three days but the deep breast pain took a bit longer (could have been a blocked duct as well).
I found the GP and HV pretty useless to be honest - it was the bf counsellor at our local support group who sorted us out.

The bf counsellor also looked at my latch and although I thought it was ok - she helped me to do it so that I felt NO pain at all - couldn't believe it.

Emma, yes I wonder whether it is thrush myself as DD1 has thrush (vaginal) that we can't seem to get rid of. Maybe I should go back to Daktarin and the mouth stuff for DD2??
Am def going to try and make the BF clinic tomorrow but typically I am at a work do all morning....