Plugged ducts...help!!

[E899]

I’ve had plugged ducts for two weeks now and have just gotten over mastitis. I can’t seem to get rid of the plugged ducts! I have tried everything ... heat, massage, comb, electric toothbrush, hand expressing, pumping, cold compress, lecithin supplement, etc but nothing is happening!

Has anyone had plugged ducts for a long time and how have you got rid of them?! The infant feeding team at the hospital have told me to stop pumping but surely it would help to keep doing this? Need advice as the pain is getting me down and I don’t want the mastitis to return!

I found getting the baby to suck them out was the only thing that worked for me. I've had them often because I had to exclusive pump for months and I sleep on my front (which is one thing that causes them) and the sometimes I'd selfishly put him on the breast once a day just to get the lumps out! He was so much better at it than the double electric breast pump. He loved it though and I don't think he minded a bit of reflux in exchange for milk and snuggles. You said you're pumping--Is your baby with you or in hospital? Can you get the baby to latch?

I’ve never successfully pumped but did get a blocked duct heat from a very hot hot water bottle and I fed DS a lot. He was about 9 months old so good at feeding and it still took days to shift.

He’s with me so he’s feeding from me but I’ve expressed a couple of mornings to see if that will do anything too. He has a really bad latch on the right hand side which is the side with the plugged ducts, I can’t seem to correct it and I’ve had lactation consultants from the hospital come out and they said it looks fine but I really don’t think it is - it’s quite shallow.

I just can’t seem to do anything else to shift them - I’ve applied heat and massaged before and during feeding. I don’t know what to do if they don’t go?

I know it doesn't solve the immediate issue, but has he been checked for tongue tie? We're getting ours done today (7-month-old baby) after everyone kept saying our latch was fine etc but I was getting a lipstick-shaped nipple on one side and it kept bleeding. If he feeds more efficiently he might be able to clear it easier. I know when there's a galactocelle (big milk lump) you can get it drained at the hospital (fine needle aspiration) but I don't know what they do with an ongoing blocked duct.

They assessed him for tongue tie and everything’s fine. He has a high palate so they advised to do the flipple technique. In so much pain it’s just not going!

Electric toothbrush
Loads of lansinoh and making them feed on it. If I recall i dangling my boob over the top their mouth. That seemed to work but the pain was gruesome. op

I can’t seem to get his latch right when dangling but guess it’s worth another go! I wonder if pump dangling would work too. Electric toothbrush I’ve tried too!

I always found that they’d clear in a hot bath - get in the bath, lean forward so the boob dangles down into the water, then massage hard toward the nipple. Or use one of those plastic wide-toothed combs if you have one. Feel for you, mastitis and blocked ducts are grim.

Feeding from that boob as much as poss worked for me. Was never successful with pump or massage, heat etc.

How are you holding him on the left side? If you can, shift him from left to right, so that he's in the same position, if you see what I mean. So might involve the rugby hold.

I once had plugged ducts in right boob for 5 days but my DS managed to suck it all out - could literally feel the moments it was being sucked out.

Good luck. X

Have you had a good look in your nipple? I had blocked ducts for about 10 days before I noticed a small white lump in my nipple, not recommended but I managed to dislodge it with a needle and then fed from that side and I honestly felt the milk move it was such a relief.

The hard white lump was only the size of a pin prick, I think it was trapped further inside my boob earlier in the week and travelled down and then was trapped in my nipple.

I've googled this endlessly and only found one other thread with it mentioned, but they said it was quite common in the dairy industry