Help with stopping breastfeeding

[smarties]

Hi I am newish here so please be gentle with me. My DS is 17weeks old and I have encountered 4 bouts of mastitis which have made me feel v.ill. I am now considering moving over to the bottle but really am having doubts about this. My question is how realistic is it to feed only on 1 side and how do I stop producing on the side where I have had the mastitis. I went to see the health visitor this morning and she suggested that I put a piece of fabric around my breasts and take some panadol to stop the milk. From my understanding this could encourage mastitis. My DS is on the 25th centile and feeds every 3 sometimes 2 hours during the day. He sleeps normally from around 8pm till 4 or 5 with a dreamfeed. I would like to continue as there is psoriasis in the family any advice would be welcome

Thanks

Hello
Bumping for you

You could talk to a breastfeeding counsellor - have you tried the NCT breastfeeding line?

Did the HV or GP give you any idea why you keep getting mastitis?

Boo to your HV - what a stupid idea Panadol will not stop the milk - all it may do is to help you with the inevitable pain of stopping with a full supply, and yes, you may well end up with mastistis....esp as you have already shown you are prone to it. I don't expect HVs to know everything about bf, but it would be nice if they knew they didn't know instead of telling people stuff that makes their problems worse

Yes, you can feed on one side, smarties. I think you'll be helped by talking this through with someone who knows stuff (um, not the HV) and who can discuss some strategies. Basically, the breasts produce independently now, so you can run down the supply on Bad Side while the baby feeds mostly on Good Side, and Good Side takes over the production.

Then, when you have done this, go to your HV and tell her yah-boo-sucks from me for risking your health (and your baby's) and certainly sabotaging your continued breastfeeding and comfort.

mastistis=mastitis

PS: the panadol-and-bind-the-breasts thing is what is normally suggested to brand new mothers who don't want to breastfeed and want to make the milk disappear as soon as poss after it comes in - so she hasn't made it up out of the blue. But it is absolutely not what you would suggest to a mother 17-weeks postnatal (unless you didn't have a clue about breastfeeding of course....)

Thanks for your responses I did see the breast feeding counsellor from the royal free hospital and have called the nct helpline and have seen my gp on numerous occasions for prescriptions. My take on the mastistis is that the right side has less supply than the left and my ds gets frustrated on this side after feeding for a couple of minutes he gets so wound up that I switch and to the other side, the breast therefore doesn't get drained. I was advised by the nct helpline to express just to relieve the engorgement but not to feed on that side as the left would take over. I did bfeed my dd until she was 7 months but that was over 5 years ago and I guess each baby is different.

Never done this before but had to reply after reading your problems. My baby is 15 weeks old and I have had mastitis approx. 8 times now. I had 4 lots of antibiotics from GP and when I questioned this was told alternative was getting it drained and going into hospital! Getting what drained, I don't have an ulcer. Finally on 5th time GP referred me to hospital where I saw a "lactation consultant" who explained a lot to me.
I get it about every week now but can just about cope with it. As soon as I feel symptoms coming on I take Ibruprofen and put ice on it. I also feed as much as I can on it. The expert said basically what tiktok said to reduce milk supply by swapping to the other breast after a few minutes of feeding, but to do this when mastitis has gone.
I know how bad the pain can be from it and have consistently been in tears from the pain of him feeding on it. Also cannot express from it when mastitis is present as it is so painful. I find now that it seems to wipe me out for a morning but after that is fine.
I have found GPs and HVs useless on this matter. But I am determined to keep feeding him. Good luck with it.