Breastfeeding help needed

[GemmeFatale]

Help please!

I’m breastfeeding my 6 week old. One breast is suddenly huge! Engorged, I’ve tried feeding on that side and pumping (hand pump, very little milk).

I’m assuming some sort of blockage? How do I release it? I have no hard lumps to massage or anything else obvious.

I had one breast get massively engorged and it took 3 feeds and a massage in a hot shower to shift it. Wasn’t anything wrong or blocked it just got over excited and took a while to empty. It’s hard for them to latch on when the breast is hard and hand pumping isn’t easy so if you haven’t then try a hot shower and it might leak a bit and get softer. How long has it been like that?

Get in a hot shower immediately and express with your hands.

Hot flannel over boob & keep an eye out for pain or fever- could be the start of mastitis which is horrrible!

Warm compress can help and if baby is sleeping you need to either look at them or a photo of them whilst trying to express. YouTube has some good videos to show the technique.

Agree it's hard for the baby to latch on an engorged breast so massage and hand expressing (assuming no pump?) are the urgent steps.

Any large 24hr supermarkets nearby where DH could get a pump??

Hope it’s not too painful - I remember having this at a similar stage and wondering whether it would ever go down... (it did 😁). Obviously the key is to try to sort it before it gets too painful/there’s a blocked duct/mastitis. I was wondering whether dangle feeding might help (as it sounds, sort of crouching over your baby for a feed to let gravity get the milk out). Might be tricky to get the latch with a 6 week old though. Not sure if a shower might help, massage and maybe express straight after. You might need to make sure you’re feeding a little every few hours to help reduce it, but don’t ignore the other side. La Leche League and the Breastfeeding Network have hotlines that might be worth a call (not sure if they open Sun but take a look) for a chat and maybe a local breastfeeding drop in or support centre might be good to check if it’s been caused by a latch issue? Hope it gets better soon.

The above - also try filling and refilling a sink & dunking whole breast in it, gently massaging from all sides towards nipple. If inflamed or sore you could be getting mastitis and need a doctor. I used to get this quite often and found cabbage leaves worked and I didn’t need meds. Get a cabbage leaf or 2 & gently break/ squash the central vein with a rolling pin and put in your bra. It’s magic and cooling too( just rinse boob before next feed) a leaf lasted me about 6 hours then I’d get another- darker leaves worked best for me

Nice warm bath, hand express whilst on all fours with boob submerged.

Sounds weird I know but this is the only thing that's ever worked for me!

Or as @Pantsomime has said, dunk breast in sink. Because this quite clearly makes more sense and is something I wish I'd thought of!

Thanks for the quick response all. I’ll start with a hot shower and work through.

No fever, I feel surprisingly well, so hopefully not mastitis.

Dangle feeding makes sense but we have latch issues (tongue tie has been snipped recently) so I doubt we could do it

If you need to put a hot compress on it, use one of your baby's nappies soaked in hot/ warm water, works a treat. Also baby is the best remover of milk (pumping not as good), so heat (hot shower), remove milk (express to soften the breast so baby can latch on). Best of luck, happened to me and it settled with this approach.

Thanks all. After a night of alternating feeding and boiling my boob with hot compresses it seems less massive and more equal to the other side.

I’m very grateful for the help.

Well done OP, glad you’re more comfortable now.

It happened to me once and hasn’t happened since so hopefully you’re all good now