Infection but no antibiotics?

[Notonthisplanet]

Hi, last night my right breast became sore and felt bruised along with redness, I also feel tired and a bit achey. So I rang GP today and got in to see the nurse who confirmed an infection but told me to manage it the usual ways, massage, iboprufen, cold compress etc.. as she said I didn't need any antibiotics. It feels a bit sore feeding but not too painful but was surprised with an infection to not be given the antibiotics. I just have to go back if it gets worse which I hope it doesn't over the weekend as surgery is closed. Any one else had an infection that went away without the antibiotics? How did you manage? Thanks.

If you have mastitis you can get it to shift without antibiotics and it's worth a try as you are more prone to thrush if you did take them, you can get thrush on your nipples and pass to baby's mouth, not great.

My preference would have been to have been given them to hold in case of emergency, if you're feeling really fluey and ill and a hot bath, pumping wtc not working you can take them immediately.

The advice that worked for me was to get a round end comb and sit in a hot bath and literally comb down from the sore bit towards your nipple to try and get rid of the blockage. Hot flannel on it before hand though.

I had mastitis a few times whilst BF and discovered the antibiotics are wonderful!
Suffering is too much when you have little baby to look after so my recommendation would be to get to GP straight away and get prescription. The sooner it is treated with antibiotics you can expect relief in hours.

But now it is Friday evening so perhaps those other remedies will work for you - i hope so.

BTW - I don't normally rush to take antiobotics.

good luck

i had the same a few weeks ago. Dr gave me antibiotics saying i had infection as i felt awful...fluey etc. however, i was reluctant to take them and held off thinking i could take them if it got worse. i spoke to the health visitor and she said the fluey symptoms can be from milk leaking into the blood supply rather than an infection so basically i took paracetamol, fed and massaged that breast as much as i could and also tried a hot flannel. it improved by the next day and i felt better so no need for the antibiotics! (i was worried it would wreck not just mine but baby's gut flora too).

Thank you all, I actually feel fine, better than last night, I don't have a temperature or feel ill just a red sore bruised boob, there are no lumps that I can feel, just an infection seemed to have happened. Earlier dd was feeding for ages and I was massaging at the same time quite hard and now it's more sore from that so will have to see how it is tomorrow.

This article may help explain infective and non infective types of mastitis Mastitis Symptoms and Treatment