Recurrent mastitis, so fed up

[Bugaboom]

Dd is 4 months old. I had 3 episodes of mastitis in first 8 weeks, lots of blocked ducts in between, then another mastitis last week. Just finished antibiotics and now the other breast is knotty, lumpy and very painful. I've been up in the night for painkillers, feeding on that side. It's not red but still painful especially on letdown and feeding. I'm going to call GP as there's another little lump there for a few days which I wanted to check out.
I've started taking lethicin about 3 days ago- has anybody had any success with this and how long did it take?
Can anyone reassure me that this will eventually pass? Or coping strategies If I'm likely to continue getting plugged ducts and mastitis. I do have oversupply which has settled a bit but still there. I really want to bf for a year but right now not sure if I can continue feeling rubbish every couple of weeks.

I also had recurrent plugged ducts and had mastitus 5 times up until DS was 12 weeks old. It was very hard to cope with but then suddenly from 12 weeks onwards we have had no issues at all. DS is now 9 months old and we are still breastfeeding!

I could definitely put some of our early issues down to things such as ill fitting bras, and accidently sleeping on my front. I would get a blocked duct and then if i didnt act really quickly to unblock it, it quickly became mastitus. I followed the self care advice on kellymom. I found that combing the lump with a wide tooth comb whilst in a nice hot bath ... followed by dangle feeding really worked to clear blockages. This early self care plus my supply naturally regulating at 12 weeks onwards has meant no more issues.

Im glad I stuck it out and I hope this gives you some hope!

Thanks moom. By time I got to doctors there was red streaking across breast. So given different antibiotics. I was hoping it would all settle by 12 weeks but she's 18 weeks now. Just exhausted with it and feel like I can't give my toddler enough attention. Can't help but feel all these antibiotics and feeling unwell may outweigh the benefits of bf. I'll probably feel more positive once the antibiotics kick in. Will try the hot bath this evening though, thanks for the tips and your positive story

I did get some more plugged ducts after 12 weeks but with swift action was able to avoid mastitus. Of course I have the luxury of only having one DS and being able to take to a bath and look after myself. Harder with a toddler I imagine.

Have you given any thought as to the cause of your blocked ducts? I still to this day have to wear sleep bras ... anything with more structure (even if nkt wired) causes repeated blocked ducts. I also have to make sure my DS totally drains each side before switching.

I have heard some good things about the supplement you mentioned though not sure how long it takes to work.

Hang on in there if you want to .. you are doing an amazing job.

Much sympathy, and I hope you're feeling better by now. I had recurrent mastitis when DS1 was small. All except the first time, I didn't need antibiotics, but I used to run a high temperature and feel absolutely awful for a few hours. Happily, it got better when he was around 5mo. I did get the occasional blocked duct after that, but they never developed into mastitis.

If you haven't seen it already, it might be worth a look at the Kellymom page on recurrent mastitis to give you some ideas of what might be the cause. Although I know another poster on here had a lot of success taking lecithin, so hopefully it will work equally well for you, and it will stop being a problem anyway.

I too found the Kellymom advice great. The really hard massaging in the shower, and using the wide-toothed comb (I bought an afro comb) helped. Fucking hurts, though. But so does mastitis. I only took anti-bs the first time I got it (when it had got to the fever and streaky boobs stage by the time I realised what was wrong). Each time after that, I used the tips on Kellymom (inc. taking raw garlic!) and it seemed to offset it before it got to the stage of needing drugs.

If someone else hasn't already suggested this, have you had your baby checked for tongue tie? That was the root cause of our problems as DD could't drain the boob properly.

I took lecithin and am not sure if it helped, but it did coincide with the time that I stopped getting blocked ducts, etc. Not sure if it was that, or the massaging, or DD just generally getting better at feeding after her 3rd TT snip.

Thank you all for the responses. I had read Kelly mom when I was having problems in the early weeks but forgotten much of it. Looking at it now I think my problem lies with over supply which has settled a little with block feeding but I do forget sometimes so probably don't always fully empty. Also dd's latch has got quite lazy so I'm trying to rectify this on each feed.
I've drank 2 litres of water this afternoon and that has helped too! Think I was very dehydrated. Going to get DH to take over this evening and tomorrow morning so I can get a long bath/shower rather than the usual 1 minute dash! Thanks again.

I had similar problems-and I too had hoped that by 3 months things would be better. It did take a bit longer than that but by about 4 months it was starting to improve- and I was getting better at dealing with it.

I ended up bf for just over a year- I always got occasional blocked ducts but things did get better- and I ended up really enjoying bf.

Good luck x