Mastitis or blocked duct?

[Pitstop1986]

I can feel a duct on the left hand side of my breast that's very painful to touch. When my DD feeds, it doesn't seem to ease off like the rest of the breast, it still feels like that duct is full. I tried massaging it as she was feeding and I tried pumping after she'd finished feeding, but I can still feel it and it's sore to touch. There isn't any redness.

I'm also feeling like I'm coming down with something. Run down with a fuzzy head and generally not feeling right. I don't have a temperature though, as most websites say this is an indication of mastitis.

Do you think it's just a blocked duct, or does anyone think that it might be mastitis?

Thank you. I'm a FTM and I've never had any breastfeeding related problems so far, so I'm at a loss as to what is going on!

If it’s a hard lump that’s painful it’s most probably a blocked duct and you need to try everything to get it moving.

Dangle feeding (gravity helping) so feed baby while they are in the floor and you are on all fours over them. It’s not comfortable but might help.

Massage as much as you can, electric toothbrushes can help too or other devices that vibrate.

If you start to feel run down ring your doctors as you may need antibiotics and you don’t want to wait till your in a bad state.

It doesn’t sound like mastitis just yet but it might be in a day or too

It could be the beginning of mastitis, and a blocked duct is likely to go that way if you don’t shift it. Ime you need to get on it massage wise, with wet heat. Bath best, shower second - massage firmly from behind the blockage, following all the way to the nipple. You may or may not see thick or different looking milk come out. I’ll post for you a thread on an American website that has a summary of lots of tips, I had it bookmarked during a period when I got a lot of these. Also try taking ibuprofen, and heat before feeding. Sometimes you don’t know it’s cleared until later, sometimes the relief is instant, but you totally have to work on it. Good luck

community.babycenter.com/post/a25226617/help_clogged_milk_duct_wont_unclog

And ps if you continue to feel worse, or start with a temp, contact Gp. Either way keep working on it though.

Thanks for your replies. I've been putting a hot water bottle against the duct and massaging it, fed DD then pumped afterwards whilst massaging breast.

I'm currently sat with a cabbage leaf down my bra (sent DH to the shop before he started work to buy a cabbage) he also got me some pastries as a treat. He is a love!

As soon as DD falls to sleep I'll run myself a bath. Any other tips and tricks, feel free to throw them my way

You can use the back of a comb in a bath / hot shower to push down and move from outer boob to nipple to try to encourage the blockage out.

How are you now, @Pitstop1986?

Hi, thanks for checking in. I stuck a hot water bottle on it, then pumped. I ran a hot shower and massaged my boobs, put a cabbage leaf on the bad side and kept massaging it/pushing along from the blockage to the nipple. I fed every feed from that boob in different positions and pumped the other side every few hours to let down the pressure. I also drank litres of fluid.

That evening I was feeding and it felt like DD was sucking a shard of glass out of me!

Was still a bit sore afterwards, and slept 11 hours that night (with 2 wake ups for feeds) but the next morning I woke feeling much better in myself and the blockage was definitely gone!!!!

Thanks for all of your advice. I'm so relieved that I cleared it early and it didn't develop into something awful

Oh that’s great! Happy for you that you dodged mastitis. Now you can feel a bit more confident if it happens again that you have some tools up your sleeve.