Mastitis? Are there varying levels of it??

[mummajj]

There is no mistaking full blown mastitis vs blocked duct. Mine hit in the middle of the night so I may have missed the window to clear duct before it turned to infection.
My question is how can I distinguish a lump or blocked duct in first few weeks where boobs are ridiculously hard and lumpy feeling anyway??

[Cassius2]

Mummajj: i would try not to distinguish as no matter what you will want the hardness and lumps to move on down. thankfully with a newborn they feed often and i have found that in the really early weeks that i have had to hand express and massage the lumps out. they become blocked so quickly when your milk comes in and you so dont want to have to deal with mastitis on top of everything else xx

AndiE: sounds like blocked ducts...hope you are able to massage them out! i second the cold packs on the boobs. that really helps relieve the soreness for me (oversupply galore in my house lol).

[onthefly]

Mastitis is an inflammation, yeah, which may or may not be accompanied by an infection.