Mastitis for the second time in four weeks!!

Hi All,

So I woke up this morning with severe pain in my left breast so immediately took myself off to the GP!
I'll start with a bit of history... this is DS3
I had mastitis three times in about 10-14 weeks with DS2 and chalked it up to some poor latching and a LOT of stress as my father-in-law evicted us from his home at the time!
I had no problems after that and enjoyed breastfeeding him until he turned two years old.

DS3 was born on Sunday 15th April and had some issues with breastfeeding straight away.
I'm pretty sure the nurses checked for tongue tie as my sister and her son both have it.
I came down with my first case of mastitis when Daniel was only one week old and in talking to the doctor we determined that it probably was introduced through my grazed nipples - as DS1 was helping himself to my organic paw paw ointment.
At any rate, I watched how he latched on and took my antibiotics and got a tube of nipple cream and hid it from DS1 and all was well - after one horrible miserable day! Even with antibiotics, nurophen and panadol my temperature topped out at about 41 degrees before it finally started coming down.

My question this time around - since it has hit out of the blue - is this... could it be from carrying DS3 in my Hug-a-Bub carrier for his sleeps during the day? I started doing that because he wasn't sleeping well at all in his cradle and I home school my eldest so it was a necessity that the baby sleep. But could that be what has caused this? I'm demand feeding him day and night and co-sleeping at night as well so I'm pretty sure he is getting the 8-12 feeds in 24 hours.

He was 3.580kgs at birth... lost 260 grams initially... and weighed approximately 4.2kgs at one month of age so I assume he is getting enough to eat?

I would particularly like to hear from Barb but anyone else who has some thoughts I will take any and all advice! I'm on a different antibiotic this time and have just taken medicine for the temperature... I had no fever this morning but it is approaching 40 now as I type!

Hubby HAS to go to work this afternoon too so it is going to be an interesting day... I see some videos in our near future!!

Waiting anxiously for some help and advice!!

Cheers,
Heidi

Oh no! That is really rough :hug:
There are often underlying causes with recurrent mastitis. Not properly draining the breast is a common one - you mention tongue tie.... Have you looked into getting it snipped? Is it causing any other issues with your feeding (grazing, damage?)
Here's some general info from the ABA - you can also call the helpline to talk to a counsellor.

Sorry for the confusion MadB - I have been told that DS3 does NOT have tongue tie
Planning to go to the breastfeeding clinic at the baby health on Monday as my mother-in-law will be here to look after the other two children.

I managed to get blocked ducts from where DSs knee rested when he was being carried - so it is a possibility. Do you get any indication of blockages before the mastitis sets in? If you can unblock the duct (hot pack/feed baby/pump/hand express until very empty/cold pack - repeat until unblocked) then you may be able to avoid the mastitis. Ultrasound from physios is also very good at duct unblocking.