Please help - think I have a blocked duct and nothing is working to sort it out

[Swaliswan]

I'm fairly certain that I have a blocked duct. After every feed much of my breast is soft but a large portion of it is hard and feels very painful/bruised. I can feel a hard area that is triangular shaped pointing towards my nipple. My nipple has lots of little pea like lumps under it where the tip of the triangle is iyswim?

I'm assuming that I have a blocked duct. I've tried feeding lots (about 3 hours almost continuously) including feeding with DD's chin pointing at the hard area (which results in my face being at nappy level ). I've tried really hot clothes being held over the area, expressing with my pump and hand expressing in the shower. Nothing is working. It hurts. It hurts a lot actually.

What do I do so that I can move my arm without wanting some morphine for the pain?!

Oh dear. Poor you. I get a lot of blocked ducts, well the same duct actually but it blocks lots iyswim.

Take an anti-inflammatory to reduce swelling and combat pain. I never get on with the compresses/combing/bath route and just have to feed feed feed from that side while doing compressions. It takes a few days for me to deal with it. Last time it took 4, nearly 5 days.

It's horrible I know. The bruised feeling, inability to move your arm, clothes irritating it.

Does sound like a blocked duct. Do you have any white spots (bit like a whitehead) on the nipple itself? When I had this I would have a very hot bath and very firmly massage the boob towards the nip. It hurt like hell but it worked. A couple of times I actually had to break the skin which had formed over the white spot. I can see why this may not be advisable (broken skin could lead to infection) but it worked for me and very thick almost cheesy milk (yuk) came out followed by gallons of "backed up" milk.

If however you get a raised temp or flu symptoms or a red boob go straight to docs as it is likely to be mastitis and you really don't want that to take hold.

I woke up engorged on that side and one duct clearly never managed to drain. I can't see any white spots but I have read on the internet about piercing them so I guess that you aren't doing anything wrong AHM.

I shall take some ibuprofen and paracetamol and get myself to bed. It's times like these that I wish that DD would feed more during the night. I must be mad.

Ouch... have you tried breast pump in the bath?