All of a sudden I'm getting engourged and severe pain every few days

[Alex83]

DS is 5 months old and for the last few weeks I've been getting really badly engourged and pain in left side only. It's particularly bad under my arm and then spreads to the whole breast within a few hours. Expressing doesn't help as I can't get more than 1-2oz out and DS seems really fussy feeding that side so won't empty it.

It's been every few days for the past few weeks and is really getting me down as the pain is so bad I can barely lie down or hold DS and it's becoming more and more frequent.

Why is this happening all of a sudden? What can I do to stop it? I'm keen to start winding down the BF to just evening feed and at night but I'm really worried this will make it even worse, I'm in such a lot of pain.

Thank you!

If I was you I would book a docs appointment just to be checked, sounds like you could maybe have a blocked milk duct? However the fact it only hurts every other day I'm not sure on? Unless it unblocks itself with feeding then blocks again, is your baby going longer before a feed sometimes?
I recently reduced breastfeeding to evening, night and first morning feed and bottle feed the rest and it was painful to drop those feeds but done gradually wasn't too bad I just expressed for a couple of minutes if it got bad.
Hope it gets better for you

Hi, maybe I'll need to go to the doctors for a check. It's so strange, it's as though sometimes DS doesn't want to feed from that side and just fusses on it for a few feeds and then suddenly will have a big feed and it's ok again. Thank you for the help!

If it's happening often, you should definitely go to the doctor and get it checked.

One tip I got from my GP to get rid of engorgement was to feed the baby in different positions. They press hardest with their lower jaw, so the milk ducts next to it get emptied more/faster than the others and the ducts which aren't being emptied so effectively are more likely to get blocked. If yours is starting under your armpit, maybe a rugby-ball hold would help. If the baby is already fussy though, I can see that this might be tricky!

Thank you for the advice! I tried DS in rugby ball hold today and it did seem to help I think, I'll have to remember to keep changing positions to hopefully stop it from keeping happening, it seems my left side is prone to a blocked duct then.

Hi Alex, this sounds like just what happened to me when I was breastfeeding my daughter at around 8 months. it was unbearable and I had so many visits to doctors, breastfeeding counsellors and even hospital for a breast scan, and both me and my daughter undergoing treatment for nipple / mouth thrush (incorrect diagnosis). basically after i fed on my left breast intense pain would begin afterwards spreading from my breast into my armpit and right into my chest which could last for a few hours. i never did find the answer unfortunately and eventually I had to stop feeding on the affected breast for several days, after which it seemed to go away. luckily my breast never became too engorged as my daughter wasn't feeding constantly at that stage. one thing that did help was holding ice on the breast when having the burning sensation, and the strongest painkillers you can take when breastfeeding. i also bought some lansinoh breast pads that you heat in the microwave and put in your bra before feeds to try and help the ducts open. i think now that it was due to blocked ducts, as it seemed to begin after I had some milk blebs on the nipple and my breasts became very engorged and difficult to get the milk out. you have my sympathy as it really got me down for a good few weeks due to the pain, i had to have relatives come and stay as i couldn't look after my daughter after feeds. if possible, you may want to see if you can ease up feeding on that breast and try pumping if you can - if it's hard try a warm bath and hand expressing (a breastfeeding counsellor may be able to help) - but I'm not a breastfeeding expert and encourage you to seek some expert advice (unfortunately no-one seemed to be able to help me and i eventually sorted it myself!). the good news is we overcame it and I'm still feeding her over a year later! i hope you manage to resolve it soon x

ps someone on another thread is having similar problems, if you haven't seen it already here's the link www.mumsnet.com/Talk/breast_and_bottle_feeding/2704994-My-GP-says-just-stop-breastfeeding?pg=1

Hi quietly thank you so much for the advice and sorry for the slow response but we've been on holiday this week.

Yes it sounds as though it is blocked ducts I think the same as you as it seems to be when he doesn't feed properly for a few feeds so it's not emptied. I'm sorry to hear you've been through the same but great to hear you've had a good outcome and are still BF. I'm really hoping to cut down the BF to just evening and over night so hopefully that won't make it worse, I guess I'll just have to try it and see.

Thanks for the link also, I'm going to go and have a look now at that other thread.