HELP - Urgent. Engorgement, worried about mastitis

[PotPourri]

Hi, my baby is 5 days old. Feeding was going great. Milk came in day 2/3, feeding every 2 hours, a little bit less at night (can be upt o 3 hours, but usually still 2 hours). DS comes off by himself after 25-30 mins. He's only lost 0.150 from birth weight so all looking good.

but today i am really engorged on right hand side. Some red marks appeared (although midwife saw today adn said not mastitis as would be a triangle.

I am really shivery - but my other 3 kids have a terrible sickness bug and temperatures, which I caught and had bad dioreah(sp?) this morning. I have tried hard to eat adn drink loads today to get good stuff in my milk.

Just fed DS from sore side for 30 mins, and it is still hard and a bit red. His latch is probably not perfect, but I have worked really hard to get him on with a big mouthfull

Really worried about getting antibiotics, as thrush made me have to stop with DD2.

Please please help.... (should I express from sore side? - I have an ameda electric pump)..

Not sure, instinct says yes, but I wouldn't want to give you duff advice.

Have you taken your own temperature? Do you have a fever? How about looking at www.kellymom.com and searching under mastitis. There's heaps of info, including recommendation for fenugreek as a means of avoiding antibiotics.

However, I really think that it's worth getting a doctor to look and assess.

In the meantime, I'd just try to follow tips re: engorgement on the kellymom site, and feed your ds as much as you can persuade him to from the sore side.

Good luck.

Congrats on the birth of your DS!

I had this and my midwife told me to do the following. It cleared up in 8 hours:

Take some paracetamol (sp?), use a cold compress between feeds and a warm one just before feeds. Get baby feeding off the sore boob as much as possible and express as well. Express off the other boob as that one will get engorged otherwise!

Take a hot shower and run it over your boob, use a wide tooth comb to brush towards the nipple (over the red bits). I did this twice!

When feeding, run your fingers towards the nipple to help massage the milk out.

A handy tip - a nappy filled with warm water is great as a warm compress!

If you don't feel better in 24 hours you need to see a GP...

Do you have a milk blister? (I think Kellymom has some info on these). Have you tried feeding on all fours? (though could be difficult with such a young baby).

I had engorgement a lot, but only with DC2 and only when he was quite a bit older than your LO. I don't want to give duff advice either - maybe someone with expertise will come along in a mo.

Also agree with Igglybuff - nappy filled with hot water is great and soooo comforting when you're engorged and shivery.

I did the feeding on all fours thing. My DS was mightly confused and I felt a bit silly dangling boob in his face. But it helped!

As others have said, sounds like beginning of mastitis to me but you can definitely still nip it in the bud: get hot flannels, right now, and place on affected area - as hot as you can bear. Then feed your ds on that side, preferably in football hold if you're able to. Massage the milk out towards nipple like igglybuff says above.

i was also advised to take nurofen to reduce inflammation

I did this several times in the early weeks and it always cleared up.

(the first couple of times I didn't do it, waited a day, then got mastitis really badly and had to have antibiotics - so treating it right now, and throughout the night is vital)

hth

congratulations on your baby and getting feeding established so well

feed feed feed from the affected side and if you feel that he hasn't fully drained the breast after the feed, express afterwards to get all the milk off.
massaging the affected area during feeding can help, as can warm flannels/showers to get the milk flowing. cold compresses/gel packs can help relieve the pain inbetween feeds.

take some paracetamol for the pain and ibuprofen to reduce the inflammation and as others have said see a gp if you start feeling flu-ey.

thanks. am doing football hold now. and reading kellymom at same time. forgot about cabbage - which i do have in the fridge. will try the massage and cold compreessess. thanks 9sorry abt spelling, one hand lol)

Make sure with the football hold that the baby's chin is exactly in line with the blockage, even if you end up at a funny angle -this really worked for me.

All sorted now - thanks everyone - great support. (Moved onto the next worry...! LOL)