Mastitis - how long before I'm pain free feeding again?

I was diagnosed with a severe staph infection in both breast on NYE and started antibiotics that night. Under my LC's instructions, I've been expressing full time (bar a few breast feeds) since NYE. Pumping is going well but I'm itching to get back to full time BFing but it's still quite painful. My LC said it could take 10-14 days for the infection to clear and to continue mainly expressing until this weekend. I'm happy to do that but I'm just so scared the pain just won't leave me. I tried two feeds yesterday and I was in pain afterwards, until well into the night :( Maybe I'm just being impatient :dunno: I'm on a second course of ABs cause the infection is still there.

What's your experience with mastitis? How long before you were able to BF pain free again?

I have had mastitis 5 times and just thinking about it now makes me cringe! The first 4 times I felt much more comfortable feeding after a couple of days, The last time It took 3 lots of antibiotics and about 3 weeks for it to clear up.

Go the cabbage leaves!!

oo staph, that's awful. Sorry to hear that!
I've had mastitis a few times, but never had an infection that bad so I don't know. I'm sure it will get better though - hope you're getting lots of rest

Why do you hVe to express rather than feed? I thought it was fine to feed through mastitis (because you really just want the milk to flow) or is it because of the antibiotics?

Hope you're feeling better soon!

I only had it once badly and I had to have 2 courses of AB as well. Feeding was excruciating - tears, swearing, biting down on a towel while DH helped hold the baby to my breast in case I let her go or passed out from the pain. It was that bad for about 4 days but thankfully only on the one side. I would say it took almost 3 weeks for the breast to be painfree though and it was never the same again. I would get pain when I was quite engorged.

I am so sorry you are going through this, it's an awful thing. Hope you feel better soon.

Thanks for your replies girls. I'm not sure what's going on with my nipples, they still hurt!! Nothing like they were but they still aren't right. I'm pretty certain the staph infection has gone (my nipples look really good and healthy again) and I finish the second course of antibiotics today so it's got me stumped. I am wondering if it's just my nipples getting use to so much attention again :rofl: That's possible, isn't it? Will check with my LC again too as they shouldn't really hurt given I've been pretty much exclusively expressing since NYE. I managed to feed DD2 with a nipple shield yesterday and she seemed to do really well (she got 90ml all up when I tried with the shield when my LC visited the other day) but I was hoping we could just launch back into BF. That's not looking like the case so i guess I just have to be patient....

Arcadia - I had to pump to rest my nipples until the infection had fully healed. They were badly damaged and very infected, not nice at all :( Breastfeeding was, in a nut shell, pure hell so my LC told me to 'rest and express' until I finished the antibiotics.

Ask the LC about thrush as well - sometimes that little bug takes advantage of the antibiotics knocking out its competition....
I'm glad its somewhat better - hope that it continues to improve.

It could be residual pain - sometimes women experience vasospasm after all apparent damage ahs healed (but maybe not completely on the inside) but thrush is also possible, yeah.

Yeah, I'm worried it's vasospasm. I had a severe case of it with DD1 and blood pressure medication was the only thing that helped. I've still got some tablets left and I'm tempted to take it to see if it helps.

I had thrush with DD1 so I'm aware of that lovely little issue too but I don't think it's thrush. I've been taking probiotics since I started the ABs to keep it at bay.

I reckon it's vasospasm rearing it's ugly head again. Bugger!

Nipple trauma can trigger vasospasm so unfortunately that could be it. Keeping your breasts warm often helps ease the pain - did you try breast warmers last time? The medication also helps lots of mums with vasospasm so if that worked for you last time that's an option for you too.

Has the damage to the nipples healed now? If there is ongoing pain it could also be that attachment isn't quite right. Sometimes things like minor tongue-ties or high palates can go unnoticed but can cause attachment issues. Presumably your LC has checked for all of that but it's worth keeping in mind if things aren't improving.

You are doing such a great job - I really hope it gets easier for you soon :hug:

Thanks MR. I did buy breast warmers this time and they work really well but don't help with the nipple pain. I actually stood in front of the open fridge last night after I'd expressed to check how my nipples would cope cope and they were fine. That was agony with DD1. Even a cool breeze on my face was agonising. But maybe it's still early days with vasospasm :dunno:

DD2 has a mild posterior tongue tie (LC picked it up immediately) so we have an appointment with a specialist on the 23rd to get it looked at. It may very well be what caused the damage in the first place.

Her attachment is excellent and she has a brilliant suck so it's a little confusing as to why things went pear shaped. The tongue tie is to blame until proven otherwise! Lol!

All the pumping might be making things hard on my nipples too. I know it's not meant to hurt and it doesn't while I pump but surely all that full on artificial sucking can't be good for them. Then again, how do EE mums cope? Hmmm

My LC is visiting again this afternoon so hopefully she'll have more ideas for me

I just wanted to say


'you are amazing'


You should be so proud of all you are doing and have been through to continue breast feeding! Congratulations!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Also call the specialist and tell them about the TT I don't think they will make you wait so long. Dd1 wasn't but my last three were in varied degrees. I battled on with dd2 for weeks. As I had bad advice. Ds I got an appointment within a week and dd3 was 'done' within 13hrs of birth. I can say that the difference is felt that first feed after the snip and mine 'seemed' to experience no pain.

Good luck. And If you want me to call the specialist I will just pm me :)

Again congratulations. You are amazing.

Do you need a larger or smaller breast shield for the expressing - they come in different sizes for different sized nipples. And sometimes using olive oil on your breasts (once they are no longer bleeding) can make them slipperier and help reduce the abrasion from the shield.
Hang in there!

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Do you need a larger or smaller breast shield for the expressing - they come in different sizes for different sized nipples. And sometimes using olive oil on your breasts (once they are no longer bleeding) can make them slipperier and help reduce the abrasion from the shield.
Hang in there!

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Already onto that ;) I had so many issues with DD1 that I have all the tools this time :lol: I actually have three sizes so we could work out the best fit. My LC is worth her weight in gold!

Haven't tried the olive oil but am back using Lasinoh now the infection has gone so that helps a bit. Might try the olive oil if I'm still having issues. Thanks!

Tegam - awww thanks hon. Your encouraging words mean a lot. I had a terrible ride with DD1 and somehow managed to soldier on (I must have been insane!!) so I'm determined again this time. I'm in a much better head space to cope with it all this time too, knowing it is possible to 'get there'. Let's hope I can stay positive!

not insane, just a mummy :)

Not insane just a BEAUTIFUL mummy ;)

Gosh you are doing so well. I hope this passes soon for you. I am an EE mum. I only get sore nipples very occasionally. If this happens I just turn the pump down a bit for a few pumps until it passes or I put some olive oil on. I'm not sure if pumping is harder on the nipples than BF because we didn't get BF established. My nipples have changed shape but this might have happened anyway from BF.

Your support and advice means a lot girls. Kept me soldiering on through a tough night trying to get DD2 back on the breast.... in a nutshell, it was useless. With and without shields. My LC weighed her during the feeds yesterday and she took forever to get 30ml. She is taking 100ml of EBM in a bottle so that just isn't right. The two feeds I tried on my own were the same (my LC left her scales for me to use) and now my nipples are killing me again :cry: Back to the drawing board.

I'm off to see my LC shortly to get my nipples swabbed again. We suspect the staph is still lingering. My GP has been kind enough to send me another script for ABs without an appointment.

I started taking Nifedipine last night for vasospasm as my nipples showed classic signs of it (blanching, etc) while my LC was visiting yesterday. Hopefully we've nipped it in the bud, before it becomes totally agonising that is.

Tongue tie appt has been brought forward to Tuesday. Praying the snip will solve our problems from DDs end at least.

Give me strength!!!

Sending you my thoughts. It's such a hard road emotionally and practically when all you want to do is BF and it just isn't smooth sailing. You are doing fabulous for hanging in there. Only a few more days until Tuesday and hopefully that will change the lay of the land for you.

It sounds like you've got a good LC. If you need any tips on managing expressing feel free to PM me, or scroll through the past pages of the EE sticky or your LC might have some good tips too. I got advice from everywhere to manage expressing efficiently every bit of advice (some really fabulous girls who have BTDT) really helped me and made the process more efficient.

Oh Hun! Sounds like u r doing an amazing job! What a fantastic mamma u r!

Rep points coming girls, just always seem to be in a rush and on my phone replying while I pump!!

I'm so sick of expressing. I know others have a lot harder time (Lisa, my hat goes off to you!! What an awesome thing you're doing for your LO!) but I'm just over it. I just want to BF my baby! I've got hardly any time to spend with either of my girls and as much as I'm appreciating family and friends helping out when they are around, I just want to do my job! I want to feed and snuggle my newborn, I want to play with my toddler - I don't want to palm them off cause I have to express again!! Argh!!

Ok, vent over. Hopefully things will return to normal soon. I spoke to my LC this morning and she had just received my test results - they were clear! So I've stopped taking the last course of antibiotics as I was taking them just incase the results were positive.

My nipples still don't feel quite right, they're a bit tender, but that could be the vasospasm and or my nipples just adjusting to BF/pumping again. DD stopped BF in Aug 2010 so they have been out of action for a while.

My LC said to keep pumping full time until after DD's tongue tie appt on Tuesday. So hopefully that means I only have two more days of it to go. Fingers crossed we can get back into it on Tuesday. My LC is visiting Tuesday afternoon to help us get back on the wagon.

The light is shining at the end of the tunnel, I think. Cross your fingers for me girls that my nipples behave.

Oh Taurean, I'm so sorry to hear you are going through all this, you poor thing! :hug: But you are totally AMAZING for soldiering on. :confetti: Hope you get it sorted soon, your LC sounds wonderful!

Fingers crossed Tuesday brings some relief!

When DS was about 5 months old he bit me and my nipple got terribly infected, I ended up with blood poisoning and a severe case of mastitis. It took several courses of antibiotics to get over the infection, but to be honest (and very sorry to say this) it probably took a couple of months before I was completely pain free feeding again. I continued to feed DS despite the excruciating pain but only because I was so bad at expressing (it took hours and I didn't ever have enough to actually satisfy DS) I HAD to feed him. I found I had to switch sides frequency and take little breaks, and once my nipples were healed enough, I smothered them in Lansinoh. Like you I wondered if I had vasospasm, though I didn't seem to display all the symptoms my nipples were certainly tender for some time.

You're doing a great job to get this far, hopefully not long now xx

:hug: yeah the early days of pumping are really tough particularly when you are trying to add in a BF as well. In the early days a feeding cycle (attempting to BF, expressing, cleaning up and bottle feeding) took about 1.5 hours, leaving me with about 1.5 hours between the cycles. Vent all you want. I was so over it at 3 weeks. Believe it or not it's almost a breeze these days as I now only express 4 times a day. All the feelings you've got are really normal. I"m sure Tuesday can't come quick enough. At this age I found expressing whilst feeding my bub was a useful trick (your LC could probably show you how if you need too. It was an LC who showed me how) or having the bouncer beside me on the couch so I could enjoy my bub was a bit more enjoyable.

Hope you're back 'in action' tomorrow!

Well the tongue tie has been snipped! She was a classic case, apparently, and it has the highest success rate from snipping. Cross your fingers for me that BF goes well this afternoon!

fingers crossed!

Hope all's well now

Our first feed went well and the second, with my LC here, was even better :clap: DD took 90mls all up (she's been having 100mls of EBM at each feed) so we were thrilled! She did really well on one side shield free but grew tired quickly so I used a shield on the other side and she fed beautifully!

I'll need to use the shield a bit until her strength builds up and she adjusts to her new tongue and technique but things look really promising! I'm attempting full-time BF as of now!

My nipples are still tender but we are certain it's the vasospasm. The nifedipine should really start working soon so hopefully that'll take care of the tenderness.

Thanks for your support and advice girls, it really means a lot :grouphug:

Great news!

wonderful news!!!

Great news!

It's so hard when all you want to do is feed and it's such a struggle. I know when I was in so much pain every day (every feed really) I considered weang and I'm so glad we got past it.

Here's hoping you're feeding pain free very soon :)

Yay!!!