Mastitis

I would go to the doctors, you will likely need antibiotics x

I've had mastitis 3 times and the things that helped were warm compress painkillers and even though it hurts keep emptying that breast and keep hydrated

You get fever with it and it’s said if you don’t feel better within 48 hours you can even call 111. When it happened to me I called 111 as it was Saturday and I was called to see GP in out office hours… You can use heat compression it really helps and especially do compression and expression where it heals hard and pump at same time it helps in melting milk…. Even expressing while talking warm bath helps…

I needed antibiotics when I had this. Gentle hand expressing in shower helped and I got a lactation massager from momcozy that helped too (I massaged before feeds) x

Just recovered from it. Had bruised boob/red and fever - shivering. You’d know if you had it! Might just be a small blocked duct.

Hope it’s gotten better since you posted this! 🙏 There’s a huge difference between a blocked duct and mastitis and it sounds like you have a blocked duct (which can lead to mastitis). I’ve had mastitis twice and you would know - it hits really quick. Red angry and hot super painful boob, fever, chills, flu like symptoms. When it actually progresses to mastitis you should really get antibiotics from the GP. But for a blocked duct just feed baby as much as possible, massage and you can manually express but don’t pump (unless you’re exclusively pumping then pump as normal). Good luck!

Taking the opportunity to say hi to my fellow mastitis survivors 👋🏻 💪🏼, it’s the worst!

Thanks for all your replies I gritted my teeth and breastfed last night on it a few times as it was so engorged and my little girl has started sleeping longer stretches so had to express as well as it was so uncomfortable but just did 5 mins to take the edge off on the lowest setting. She's fed on it again this morning and I am massaging with a hot flannel compress as well so hopefully it won't turn into mastitis, it sounds horrible! Glad you're all feeling better after your mastitis 🫶🏼

When I had blocked ducts I was told not to do hot compress as this encourages more milk production which makes it even more painful as the milk can’t get through due to inflammation of the tissue. I was recommended cold compress for pain (which didn’t really help me so I didn’t do any compress), and very very gentle massage towards lymph nodes (under clavicle and armpit) to help reduce inflammation. But the main thing that helped was feeding even though it’s painful as hell. Usual painkillers as well should help (I took paracetamol).

My experience with mastitis is that I get a hot/burning feeling in my breast and redness on the breast before I get any fever/flu like symptoms. A red streak on your breast is bad. If you feel both boobs and one warmer, is bad. If you can identify from these symptoms before flu/fever and get on antibiotics you can potentially minimise that. I've had it numerous times so now take probiotics rather than antibiotics. I also use lots of ibuprofen when I have a flare up which reduces inflammation and helps clear the blockage. People say cabbage leaves, I prefer cabbage cream (cabo creme or jadelute). Make sure you get rid of those blocked ducts though. Good luck xx

Also I found pumping to make it worse by the way. If pumping does work for you make sure you only pump to a comfortable level. Otherwise your supply will increase and milk keeps coming back and it will make matters worse. I use hand compression x

As someone mentioned use cold compress not hot and massage to your armpit before each feed. Always continue feeding and if pain is bad then try to express for a few minutes before breastfeeding. Your baby can get more milk than a pump so will do a better job a clearing a blocked duct