mastitis

[grannyfranny]

can anyone help this granny.my daughter has mastitis relly bad and is now on her second lot of antibiotics still expressing but in such a lot of pain and just about to give up.she says the advice she gets from various midwives is so conflicting so does anyone out there know what she should do now.i feel fairly useless as a mum right now since i never had any problems like this.

I was hospitalised for three days with mastitis after it got too much for oral antibiotics to handle so watch her carefully.

The breast just seemed to stop flowing altogether and the only thing that eventually got me going again was hot flannels before I fed, (very painful) breast compressions during the feed and doing that regularly. If she's running a high temp make sure she drinks a BUCKETLOAD of water so she doesn't get dehydrated.

Sorry. It's such a horrible thing!

Mastitis is very painful. Has she still got a high temperature? Can she feel the lump where the blocked duct is?

Can she latch the baby onto her breast at all? I know how painful that is but I've had mastitis several times and have found expressing to be far more painful and less efficient then latching the actual baby onto the breast.

If she can latch the baby on, she should try and feed very often, in different positions, keeping the baby in bed with her so she can rest and feed very regularly.

Paracetamol and ibuprofen for pain relief.

Hot shower to try and massage the milk out of her breast; also she can use a hot flannel or a hot flannel infused with boiled ginger.

She needs to rest and drink plenty. And go back to the doctor if it doesn't start getting better soon.

Lean over the baby to feed, on all fours, baby on pillows - so the boob is dangling into its mouth.
Shower with the water running on her back and gently massage while there.
gently comb over affected area, ideally with a soft baby brush.
?Tonnes and tonnes of water to get the milk moving throuugh.

Definately best to get the baby to feed it out, expressing just not as efficient.

hope she feels better soon
p.s. all of above worked for me when i had mastitis, all the tips picked up from lovely mumsnetters

forgot about cooled savoy cabbage leaves for half an hour at a time. Helps reduce the swelling a bit

Hi granny, she shouldn't give up - it will make the mastitis worse!!! It's blocked milk ducts that causes the problem, so she must keep emptying the breast of milk, that's absolutely crucial. Problem is that the pain makes you want to avoid feeding, but in fact you have to do the opposite - you have to feed more often on that breast, as frequently as possible.

Hi granny, lots of good advice on here, especially that feeding so much better at emptying the breast. I found it easier to latch if I expressed a bit first, then fed the baby, then expressed some more, just basically emptying the breast. I still remember the moment about 2 yrs ago when I had mastitis, and when I finally got it empty all those horrible symptoms just lifted almost instantly....

And I doubt that you're a useless mum, the fact you are concerned enough to come on here looking for advice suggests that you are a great mum