mastitis or blocked duct how can i resolve it

[gingerninja]

I have had an agonising breast for a couple of days and have been a bit fluey (also have a cold tho). I have been massaging/ expressing / feeding and the lump seems to have got smaller but it is still very painful. How can I make it better DD is not happy about feeding on that side and I have a toddler who keeps headbutting it. (accidently) I need it to get better.

I had mastitis/blocked duct and it was agonising and came on so suddenly! I physically couldn't even hold a glass of water because i was shaking so much. I took some paracetmol, drank as much water as i could and just expressed constantly. By the evening i was much better. If you can see your doctor then i would but will only give you antibiotics which will take a while to work anyway. A hot flannel on it can help to

Oh deasr this is really horrible.

Feed feed and feed from that side, and whilst LO is sucking try massaging towards the nipple. You may feel something'pop' which means the blockage is cleared.

Hot water as alice says is good and paracetamol is fine to take.

Oh, feeding on all fours worked for me too. Lay baby on the bed and lean over him. Looks odd but can do the trick.

And stroking the breaast with a wide toothed comb too I've heard !

If it turns into mastitis, you will know about it. Is there a red patch at all ?

You can avoid taking AS's or at least I did, but dont delay in getting to the GP if you think you need to.

I never had them with my first two children, but suffered quite a lot with my third.

Poor you . Blocked ducts are agony. Try massaging your boob towards the nipple in a hot bath, you will be more relaxed and can be more 'hands on'.

You poor thing. If you take ibuprofen this will help with the inflammation as well as the pain. If you can go to bed - if not for the day then at least as soon as the children are asleep - you will find it clears more quickly.

I also found that the pain lasted even after the blockage had cleared.

Hi!!
I feel so sorry for you!!
I've had mastitis many times! With some of them i had to go on antibiotics with some i manages to get rid of them by constantly expressing and massaging.

If i were you i would go to doctor and have it checked out ASAP as its been 3 days. Depending on the state of your mastitis you will be given antibiotics, take them and dont worry about harming your baby, it wont! Take ibuprophen wich will reduce inflamation and pain, its not bad for your baby. And after every feed express your breast to the last drop. As you pump stop and massage your breast towards your nipple, then keep on pumping and massaging from the sore area towards your nipple, depending on the state of your mastits you may get slightly passy milk that will come out of one or a few ducts. when you think you pumped it all out find something cold (eg towel with ice, or wet cold towel, cold bottle etc) and put it on the sore area for about 10 min.
Do that after every feed until the mastits will stop.
But go and see the doctor!! really dont delay it.

The advice I got was that antibiotics will only help if there is infection there, whereas most mastitis is just inflammation and trauma in the breast tissue. If you ring one of the helplines they might be able to help you decide whether you have signs of infection.

Hi again.

There are two main types of mastitis: (from google)

"non-infectious mastitis, which is typically caused by breast milk remaining within the breast tissue (milk stasis), and is due to a blocked milk duct or problems with breastfeeding, and
infectious mastitis, which is caused by bacteria".

I had both types which reacurred many times.

Do you have sore nipples? As the bacteria may have entered through the sore nipple and then you definately will need antibiotics. But stil go to see doctor, now that you said you have flue kind of simptoms its more possible that its an infection.

Thank you all for responding. The main lump seems to have moved towards the nipple and I have redness around the areola (sp?) I also have a tiny lump and some redness on the other now (a little tender but not too bad.) I did have full blown mastitis with DD1 and needed ABs but I was hoping to avoid them as didn't want to have to drag 2 children to the Drs surgery.

With regards to expressing, I only did it in the night and this morning when I was so engorged the pain just laying on my side was very intense. So should I express after each feed then? Haven't really found the time today but will when DC have gone to bed and tomorrow and hopefully that will work. I'll also try a bath although my DD2 is only 5 weeks old so I'm finding the feeding a bit unpredictable and I don't want to syphon off all the milk if she's likely to want it.

In answer to one of the questions, yes nipple is sore. It was damaged in the early weeks with DD having a lazy latch but we overcame that and it had stopped hurting. It's such a pain as I was so pleased that bf had been so much easier this time which made me feel normal much more quickly.

Thanks again for the sympathy

PS so it's ok to take ibruprofen while BF? I thought it was just paracetamol.

If your dd is 5 weeks then expressing after every feed is likely to over increase your supply and potentially cause more mastitis IMO. I would only do it to keep your breast quite soft or if you are in pain. A BFC would be able to advise you.

But yes, ibuprofen definitely allowed when BF.

You won't/can't syphon off all the milk BTW so don't worry about that. You could always take your dd to the bath and feed her there. My DS2 LOVED that!

thanks very much. DD1 also loved feeding in the bath

Dear gingerninja my story is a bit similar to yours. I have been suffering with bf with my first child for 3 months didnt give up, finally all problems stopped and i bf for 2 years. Recently, i gave birth to twind and on the 14th day i had another mistitis. Would you beleive it!

With my first child I had these lumps and sore nipples for about 3 months. About 10 mastitises, 3 courses in that time. The first time its started my first girl was only 9days old. i had sore red marks and very sore cracked nipples. I went to bf clinic where the lady said to take ibuprofen, see gp and while feeding massage area towards nipple. I asked her whether i should massage and express she said not to as it will only increase milk supply, the same i've red in the internet. So i had to have antibiotics, as i had very high temp. and shivers.
When i called my pvt doctor that delivered my baby she told me to go back to hospital and there she and all midvifes told me to express and massage after each feed. So when i started doing that pass started to come out. I was in tears it was so painfull but did not stop expressing and massaging and carried on like that for a few days untill antibiotics kicked in and pass has stopped and sore areas dissapered.

A few weeks later it started again and this time i didnt wait. I would feed my baby, express with electic pump, then massage my breast and sore area, and express using my hands as pumps cant do the last bits of milk and sore areas around areola, took ibuprofen every 4/6 hours. That way i managed not to have antibiotics. But you need to express more often, may be not as much as i did it but at least make sure that all of it out. Sometimes i was espressing the left overs while in the bath or shower. And make sure you put something cold afterwards. Sorry for such a long message i just feel that i have so much to tell! If you want i can give my tel number and tell over the phone how exctly i did or if you have any other questions.

Thanks so much for taking the trouble to respond mumtotwin100, I think I've now resolved it after some massage, warm baths and some manual expressing. So far so good.

Thanks again everyone.