Recurrent mastitis

My baby is 12 weeks old and this is the third time I've got mastitis. My daughter is fully breastfed. Her attachment seems really perfect to me, I suffer zero discomfort while feeding her.

I guess I need to drag myself, my newborn and my son to the doctor tomorrow, but I want to know what I should be hoping to achieve. I don't want to keep taking course after course of antibiotics, I don't feel my baby is getting a chance to develop a healthy digestive system. I want to get rid of this forever.

What should I do?


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Remedial massage or ultrasound therapy? Women's health physios do that sort of thing I think (?)
Also I think taking Lecethin is supposed to help

ETA - oh, and you poor thing! :hug:

Hang in there!

Are you having difficulty unblocking ducts, or are you finding that it is already mastitis before you know you have a blockage?
The ultrasound from the physio is excellent for reducing swelling in blocked ducts and allowing them to unblock.

Is there a specific place where the blockage usually is? If so you may need to consider a bra fitting or how you sleep or where the seatbelt goes, or anything else that could be pressing on that duct. Over the next few weeks your supply should settle and mastitis should become rarer. You may also want to ask the dr for a repeat script so that you can get onto it immediately if there is another bout.

i kept getting blocked ducts (most times bar 1 i managed to unblock using my eletric toothbrush to vibrate the blockage out - a tip given to me by an LC) and it ended up being my bra, it was cutting in along my boob. I was wearing moulded cup ones and ended up having to go with a normal tshirt bra until my milk settled down. Maybe something to consider? Ducts are pretty close to the surface and super easy to **** off!

It seems to be always in a different spot. I just seem to get mastitis, I can't even feel any particular lumps to massage out.

I generally wear pretty loose fitting crop top bras, but my other bras and singlets are ill fitting because I'm an unusual size (8e) for a breastfeeding mother (apparently) and can't get the right size. I'll avoid wearing anything that could be causing an issue.

I'll try to find a physio who can help, but I still have to see the gp. Argh, I'm so sick of it.





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Hi,
You do seem sick of it, and it is a painful thing to deal with. However, 3 times seems more like bad luck than anything else. After all, most people can expect 3 colds over winter. I don't believe there is a type of woman that is "prone" to mastitis", in most cases it's a management thing. it is important to try to identify the reasons you get mastitis and then you can work on prevention. Importantly I would say, don't let your breasts become overly full and engorged. I was wondering, how often do you feed your baby in 24 hours? Do you tend to schedule feeds? Or feed on demand? How is your health overall? Often when you get the first signs of mastitis you can relieve them by feeding your baby (emptying the breast) and putting an icepack on the affected area to reduce swelling. You could take some neurofen as well. You shouldn't expect that this will keep happening

I demand feed her, there's no hint of a schedule. Sometimes I feed her constantly and other days she sleeps a lot. She did sleep for 7 hours the other night and I did wake up severely engorged and with mastitis. I don't know any way around that because I believe in demand feeding. She always has at least 6 feeds a day, usually more and she often clusters all evening, feeding often from 4.30 until 10.30.



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Your body will adjust if she consistently sleeps longer, but it can be those *changeover* periods that are hard to deal with. I believe in demand feeding too - but it's not all one way traffic. If you wake up and find yourself uncomfortably full pick her up and give her a feed, or express some milk so you are comfortable, you will get a better sleep that way, anyway.

Have you tried the Maternelle bras? They make a 10E, and they run a little small, so it just might work OK.

But it is really important not to suddenly go a long time between feeds without emptying a bit - I used to keep some cloth nappies or an old towel by the bed and just hand squirt some of the excess milk into them until I wasn't exploding and could then go back to sleep.

I have another Elle Mcpherson bra, the size 10 is too big. I'm really small, a true size 8. That bra does look interesting, though.

My gp wants me to put antibiotic eye cream on my nipples after a feed. It tastes horrid, though. I guess I can wash it off before the next feed.

The mystery is, where is the bacteria coming from? My nipples aren't sore or cracked.

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It may not even be an infection. Mastitis can be an inflamation of the tissues caused by engorgement. If your nipples are not cracked or damaged then I can't see how the creme will help. I think the key is in avoiding engorgment

I'll do my best, I do try but if I sleep for 7 hours when my bub does it makes it hard.

So if it's an inflammation, is there any lump to massage out? Because I can't ever feel any.

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I'm sorry to hear this.. I know that once you have had mastitis in one spot, it's more likely to recur as the duct often has some stretching or scarring that can make a blockage more likely. Some women (very rarely, luckily) are prone to mastitis.. I don't think it's fair to think that it's all just bad management. It sounds like you're doing lots of good things already. Have you heard of the tactics like feeding in different positions, positioning the baby's nose towards the blockage, etc to dry and ensure good milk drainage? Do you tend to feed in different positions?

Hopefully you can get through the next month or so and then it will be smooth sailing, engorgement does settle down and you'll be less likely to have milk pooling in the breasts. It's tough dealing with mastitis with a small baby! You're doing a great job.

eta out of curiousity - what are your symptoms? is it soreness and heat on the breast, or is it the fullblown fever, fatigue, aches etc?

Soreness, heat and redness. General malais.

I did have the full shakes and raging fever the first time I got mastisis with my first baby. So I try to get onto it quickly, I don't want to do that ever again.

I just can't master any other feeding positions, I do try but I end up in agony and my baby doesn't get a good feed.


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Ok... I believe that blocked ducts are far more common than mastitis (which is the full shakes, fever, weakness, etc) and most blocked ducts do resolve themselves. Is it always the same spot you've had the issue in? If so I suspect that mixing up your feeding position might help, it sounds like it's maybe not draining completely (maybe due to a little distortion of the duct from the first mastitis) so a change in position might help the tissue to open up and allow the milk to flow... i think it's worth a try?

If you've slept for 7 hours I would also take an ibuprofen - just to reduce the inflammation, and maybe ward off the blockage.
And if you can't face the ice-pack (I never could), a towel wrung out in cold water also works OK.

I had the soreness, redness and heat of the breast from just the blocked duct. It's usually when you start getting a temp/fever and flu like symptoms that mastitis has hit.

Well I do feel quite unwell when I get it, also tmi but I tasted my milk and it was salty (really salty).

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When you do feel that way it is really important to empty your breasts fully - even if you can't locate the blockage.
The usual process is hot pack/feed baby/pump/hand express/cold pack - because usually the blockage will be the very last bit to clear.
And taking ibuprofen reduces the swelling and makes clearing the blockage easier - in addition to helping with the pain.

The physio treatment works really well, but does require you to know where the blockage is - they actually work on the particular area of the duct involved. You don't need a specialist women's health physio, but you do need one that has experience in duct-zapping.

When you get really engorged, some of the stuff in your milk enters back into your blood, and provokes an immune response so you feel yuk - even before the infection that is characteristic of full-on mastitis. And at that point unblocking the duct can still fix the problem. But really simply, if the antibiotics fix it then it is mastitis.

I'm looking for the 'like' button under your post Kmn (lol). Hope you're feeling better OP! How does the ultrasound actually work?

I'm not sure that they know how it works - it's very very localized heating, and it also works to reduce swelling in injuries - which is why the physios have it.

The soreness/ redness occurs in different places, but I do wonder if there's a connection to a big massive lump of tissue in my right boob. I've had an ultrasound and it was all normal breast tissue so I'm guessing damaged milk ducts probably from wearing ill fitting bras all my life.

Is there a non-surgical way to fix that problem.



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I don't know - the ultrasound doesn't seem to be used on scar tissue, so i don't think that would be an option.