mastitis?

[Kayshields]

Hi, im a breastfeeding mother here and last week I was diagnosed with mastitis in one breast, well I have two days left from my course of antibiotics and today I've noticed that one half of my right breast is completely hard.. baby still feeds off it efficiently and it doesn't cause me any pain but I was just wondering what it was, surely the mastitis should be gone by now?

May be a blocked duct. But I am no expert

With breast feeding advice it is best to go on the breast feeding forums on MN. It's under feed the world. There tends to be allot of people on there who have breast feed for a long time or have done a course on breast feeding (am mid way through one myself). I've seen some truely terrible advice given about breast feeding on the parenting forum. Allot of people who tried and fail to establish BFing and really don't know what they are talking about. If you are given bad advice on the other forum then enough people will correct them

hi there. It does sound like a blocked duct. you're doing the right thing by feeding lots. Try feeding in different positions, warm compress, take ibuprofen to reduce swelling and google reverse pressure massage. it helps move some of the excess fluid out of the breast tissue which will allow the milk ducts more room to clear.
Is there any pain or redness in the breast? If not then you've definitely caught it in time. Good luck and report this thread to get it moved to the breastfeeding section

Another vote for a blocked duct. I had mastitis last year due to this. Dunking my tit into warm water and massaging helped and slightly squeezing it as dd fed too.

Good advice here. Just one question - did your GP suggest anything else before giving you antibiotics? Some are really quick to do so IME, without teaching you about alternative methods. ( If the mastitis gets really established and infection has set in, then you do need antibiotics, but if you catch it early, then IME you can avoid them.)

I had mastitis loads with my first milk monster. I learned to spot its approach early - at the first twinge - and was then advised to take 400mg Ibuprofen (usually two tablets), which reduces the internal inflammation enough to get the milk flowing. Then feed, feed, feed from that side. (I then had to express from the other side, to keep that one flowing !) You can then take one or two Ibuprofen 7 hours later, but have hopefully prevented the mastitis developing further by then. (One health warning - I believe that you shouldn't take Ibuprofen if you are TTC or pregnant, and you should always take it after food or eat something with it.)

HTH. Mastitis is horrid, horrid, horrid. But it can be beaten.

Hi Kay, we're going to move this thread over to the breastfeeding board for you. We know there's lots of mums there who have been through this so we're sure you'll get more good advice.

How are you doing today?