3rd mastitis in 2 months :-((((((

[LaCerbiatta]

I'm in tears.... I can't believe it's happenning again

Ds may or may not be tongue-tied. GPs, MWs and bf consultant don't agree. We've been referred to a paediatric surgeon but appointment is only on the 25th of May.

I know the latching isn't perfect, but I don't know how to make it right - sometimes ds will just not open his mouth wide enough...

I really, really don't want to stop breastfeeding, but I can't believe I have to brace myself for ds getting more antibiotics, green poos, diarrhea; me getting nipple and vaginal thrush plus breaking out in hives, which always happens to me after abs....

If you're a bf fanatic, what would you do?

you poor thing - I remember getting mastitis about three or four times very close together- it was hell.

I hope you are getting plenty of support and have a chance to rest. Resting is incredibly important.

Can you ask your doctor for fluconazole to prevent the thrush?

Not sure if doctor would be happy to gve me fluconazole... She reluctantly gave a very small useless dose to me when I did have thrush.

As for resting, I have to go to London tomorrow for ds's passport - we're flying monday. Ds has to go so I have to go.... It's gonna be so much fun.... Have to get up at 6am and haven't even started taking the antibiotic.

Belgo: what was the reason for your mastitis? And also, would some antiseptic on the nipple after each feed help?

I used to get recurrent mastitis in the beginning with DD.

The dr offered me antibiotics, but also said that she thought that I had mastitis due to my milk ducts becoming blocked, and my body reacting to that and not due to bacterial infection - and so there was probably no point to the anti-b's anyway.

The first time it happened I took the antibiotics, together with some oral gel for preventing thrush which I put on my nipple, and because it was oral it was ok for DD to suck it off. The antibiotics made no difference at all (but at least I didn't get thrush)

The next time, and subsequent times, I didn't take them. I knew the dr was right, and that it was due to blocked ducts (combination of poor latch, and me keeping sleeping on my side and squashing my breast).

I treated it myself the same way you would treat a blocked duct - massaging and combing the breast, trying to express as much as I could, and to get DD to feed from that side as much as possible. I also used to take Ibruprofen and my dr said that was OK.

As DD got better at feeding, my supply settled down and I managed to train myself to sleep on my back, the mastitis stopped happening.

I don't know if you might be in the same situation - obv I am not a dr, but maybe you could have a talk with your dr about whether she thinks the mastitis is due to an infection or not. My dr said they often prescribe the antib's routinely just in case, but they are often not indicated.

Thanks Tabitha, I hadn't thought about that. It is possible that I only have a blocked duct as fever this time isnt too high - 37.9C. I'm just worried that it's still the beginning.... Did you have high fever, chills, feeling fluey with your blocked ducts? According to the kellymom website that's the difference between the two...

Mastitis is when blocked ducts do become infected. You have have blocked ducts without them being infected but when they are infected, you feel the infection in every single part of your body and this is mastitis. I did need antibiotics to really knock the mastitis on the head. Apart from that I agree with much of what Tabitha says.

Causes of recurrent mastitis could be: badly fitting bra; sleeping uncomfortably, not sleeping enough and being run down so you are prone to infection; or problems with the latch and removal of milk from the breast and this could be happening with you tugamummy, if your dd has tongue tie. As I think you know, expert help and advice is what you need. How annoying you have to wait another month for the paed appointment - any chance you can phone up and try and get a cancelled appt any earlier?

Make sure you feed in different positions.

My doctor, who had bf three babies herself, prescribed me fluconazole. Look up the Kellymom website for more about what is safe during bfing.

Hope you get the passport sorted.

Tabitha- with me a temperature of 37.5 was the start of mastitis and it would climb to 39.

It if was just blocked ducts, you wouldn't have the temperature.

I always had a massive temperature, fluey, achey, confined to bed.

The way it was explained to me (and again, am not a dr, just repeating what my dr told me) is that sometimes it isn't a bacterial infection, but rather your own body "fighting" against what it percieves to be a foreign body - ie your own milk, in a blocked duct, sort of vaguely similar to an allergic reaction.

Ok have managed to find a reference from the NHS which seems to be saying the same thing as my dr :-) here

So you can have non infectious mastitis, but it might then progress to the infectious type, so you have to get cracking on clearing out the milk and getting rid of any blockages asap, and if that doesn't work in a couple of days then you might need antibiotics

thank you Tabitha for that link .

A few times when I had mastitis I did manage to get over it without antibiotics, but the last few times, it was just so much worse and antibiotics were needed because of the risk of abscess. Generally if mastitis isn't clearing up within 24 hours, then you may need antibiotics because like you say the risk is the stagnanted milk then does become infected with a bacteria.

Anyway it would be best if tugamommy just doesn't get it any more!

Hope your ds (sorry for thinking he was a dd!) gets seen for his tongue tie.

Thank you both!
Dr gave me antibiotics but maybe I should have waited 24h to see if it would clear on its own or not.... But I was already feeling so rough and temp was already 38,5C...
Anyway, hopefully it wont happen again but if it does I might try to let it go by itself.

That NHS link is very interesting! Looks like drs are a bit too quick in prescribing antibiotics for mastitis!

I'm sure that if they were expensive there wouldn't be so many antibiotic resistant bacteria around!