Mastitis and no antibiotics?

[Mamato3wild ponnie]

This is my 3rd time having mastitis in the past 5 months...since ds4 was born. I am tandem nursing 4y/o and 5 month old. In the past i have taken phytolacca and hepar sulfritis(sp) 3 pellets of one every 3 hours. And garlic by mounth4-5 tims a day and Vit C 1000mg as much as my stomach allows.....it normally passes with in 24 hours...or at least the fever breaks. I am going on 24 hours with a fever and achy all over. I absolutely hate antibiotics....i have not taken them in over 7 years...when i do i get an awful yeast infection. Any sugestions mama's? I'm thinkging i need to take them if the fever dost reside with in the next 6-12 hours. I'm miserable...

[tanyalynn]

Have you been taking vitC to bowel tolerance for 24 hours? That alone was enough for my 2 bouts with mastitis, but it responded faster, I was done with the fever/chills/etc in less than 12 hours. My son's had a couple bacterial infections that responded to high-dose vitamin A (if you have cod liver oil, you could try that, but I used vitA capsules to get a really high dose), but I'm not sure how common/uncommon this is (and would it be less common in adults?). I don't know what to add to your routine, but at some point, if you don't find the right support your body needs, then yeah, antibiotics may be appropriate. I don't know exactly when that point is, but misery is no good.

You're resting, right? Can you ditch all/almost all your normal responsibilities? I needed to be in bed, my body needed that as well. Hope you feel better today!

[Mamato3wild ponnie]

Yes i can be in bed...we have a lady who comes to help..we are in MX...she's taken over all duties. I've got the baby in bed w/ me...I guess i could do more vit C...I just hate the idea of taking so much i would have diarhea...that would be hellish to feel like this and be running off at the same time...any easier way to take more vit c?.....right now i'm taking 2000mg every couple hours.

[Mamato3wild ponnie]

My fever is going up an i'm so achy i can barely get out of bed..my dp went to p/u an antibiotic...I'm kind of scared because i'm not sure if i should go see a doc or what.....i'm also upset that what i've doing is not working quick enough.

[karika]

http://www.kellymom.com/bf/concerns/...ml#antibiotics

this is what i found about which antibiotics may be useful, and there are mastitis treatments there too, hth. i had mastitis once with my first dd becasue i slept on my stomach once and it caused milk to back up somehow best i can figure, so i took dd to a bedroom with a pallet on the floor and drank water and had her nurse constantly, keeping a heating pad on the other breast when it was not being nursed. i am feeling like something to do with the tandem is exasperating your body. maybe homeopathically treat the childrens mouths for this strain they say is responsible for masititis sonce you have gotten it over and over. but antibiotics are indicated apparently if you are very ill according to kellymom

http://www.kellymom.com/newman/22blo..._mastitis.html

but i remember reading on some ultra crunchy site that the ab wouldnt do any good i thougyt nak

[Mamato3wild ponnie]

I've been all over Kellymom checking out all the info on mastitis...i've got Keflex....hopefully this will work. My DP is losing it....he doesnt handle me being sick very well...it stress's him out...WTH? OMG..men...uggggg

[AutumnAir]

Take it from an unfortunate expert in mastitis and a fellow antibiotics hater; sometimes you really do need the antibiotics. But do do do take good quality probiotics too. It should help stave off any thrush or related problems. Take the probiotics at opposite times to the antibiotics, so if you're taking abx every 6 hours take the probiotics 3 hours after the dose of abx and every 6 hours too.

Hope you feel better soon.

[Mamato3wild ponnie]

I do have some great probitotics..kirkmans and something else...i will start with the kirkmans asap.
The fever is still going up...i even took a bath and am sitting in front of a fan with wet hair and my fever is still 101.
It's hot here....like in the 90's and we dont have the air on yet...i am miserable.

[tanyalynn]

I'm so sorry you're feeling so bad! The short duration I had to deal with it was pretty miserable,

It sounds like you've started the antibiotics, I hope you feel better soon!!!

FWIW, for the next time that hopefully never comes, I don't know of a better way to do the vitC. Dosing is really individual, I had to take a whole lot more than you are, but I'm working on some health problems, so that makes sense. I just bit the bullet (esp the first time cause I was a bit scared, I felt horrible and the fever/chills/body aches were getting bad so fast, I figured I had to jump on it or we'd be going to an after-hours emergency care place (Saturday, of course )) and so I was taking it every 20 minutes until the massive diarrhea hit (at which point I stopped taking more--my fever stayed down at that point and I could tell that I'd turned the corner, though it did take the rest of the day for the diarrhea to subside).

[nycmom18]

yes, lots of water, rest, and garlic like you've been doing. i recently took antibiotics amd stopped them after two pills because i was better. i know thats not what you're supposed to do, maybe my infection wasnt that bad, but i too am really sensitive to antibiotics. so i just kept up the other stuff like garlic and so forth to help.

why not try colloidal silver? i did that as well, a more natural antibiotic.

also, take a warm bath and lie on your tummy so your breasts can "drain" preferably before you nurse

also, you might want to see a breast specialist to see why you're getting infections often. i did and found out one of my ducts was very small for a lot of milk to be processed. they also did a culture to see if the strain was resistant to antibiotics. something to think about.

hope you're feeling better soon!

[meemee]

oh mama i hope you feel better.

i had to take antibiotics. i had no time to try other treatments. i had a red line, a fever of 104.5, a single mom with a 14 month old AND delirious apart from pain - with no help.

it was scary. i dont take medicine - i dont like taking anything ANYTHING - even vitamins or herbs. i try my best to do without.

but i remember that one time. it was the delirium that did it. and my fever went down in a day.

[PatioGardener]

Hug Hope you feel better soon! I really try to avoid antibiotics whenever possible too. I've seen mastitis progess to a nasty abscess, so I've realized that sometimes they do have a place. I'm glad to hear that you and baby can hang out in bed and just concentrate on nursing and getting better.
Hang in there

[Mamato3wild ponnie]

I realized late last night that i was probably dehydrated...i had the worst headache ever....i was moaning..like i was in labor...i drank alot of water and took 2 ibuprofens...with in an hour i started sweating really bad...as soon as i stopped the aches went away. I felt so much better. There was a point last night ...where i got scared...i felt so bad i thought about going to the hospital...thank goodness my fever broke..and i started feeling better.
Now today my breast still hurts and i dont have much energy.
I'm taking the probiotics....i'm unsure what i should do about continuing the anitibiotics...since i've had mastitis 3 times i'm thinking i should take the whole course.
I nursed my 4y/o for 4 years...up till the baby was born and did not have mastitis once.
Since the birth of my baby who is now 5 months...i've had mastitis 3 times. I would like to figure out the culprit...I have noticed that if i'm super stressed and emotional...crying etc...that the mastitis comes on...so it could be stress.
However i remember having some stress while nursing my 4y/o..when he was a baby and no mastitis.
The past few days have been a bit crazy....4 y/o has croup and has been nursing more often....mama's been a bit stressed and had a few days of being very emotional...so that's probably how this bout started. I've got to be super careful next time i see stress coming on.

[AutumnAir]

Glad you're feeling a bit better at least. If you've been having recurring mastitis I would definitely take the whole course of abx. I know it's a strain on your system, but it's a far worse strain to keep getting mastitis because you didn't knock the infection on the head this time. Continue taking the probiotics all the way through the course of abx and for at least 2 weeks afterwards. Get as much rest and sleep as you possibly can, keep hydrated and use alternate cool and warm pads or compresses on the affected side.

WRT the cause: well I know the first bout I got was very definitely brought on by exhaustion, stress and a host of negative emotions. The rest were mainly because the first was never treated properly, and because I continued to suffer from exhaustion and PTSD. However, I'm also prone to suffering from plugged ducts too (though they were always on the opposite side from the one with mastitis...) and I started taking lecithin 1200 mg 4 x a day. I've only had 2 minor plugged ducts since. It might be something to look into, as I know that plugged ducts can progress into mastitis, so if you think that's what happened with you then lecithin should be a good preventative.

[meemee]

due to your previous history i would continue with the antibiotics. finish the whole 10 days worth. i mean if you have started it might as well finish it. unless you see some side effects from it.

oh yeah dehydration feels like pain.

stress screws up my life too. i am trying to come to grips with stuff that helps me get out of the thinking. meditation has helped some. and doing something i enjoy - like watching movies on netflix (that's what saved me when dd was a baby, even at the cost of sleep - i watched them at night with the subtitles on and no sound, it was worth it) to divert my mind.

[ShwarmaQueen]

Originally Posted by Mamato3wild ponnie

I'm taking the probiotics....i'm unsure what i should do about continuing the anitibiotics...since i've had mastitis 3 times i'm thinking i should take the whole course.

I'm sorry you had mastitis so severely, but, I'm glad you're feeling better! It's nothing to 'mess-around' with- so finish your ABX!!!

[tanyalynn]

My 2 bouts with mastitis were with my 2nd child, never had the problem with my first. For me, life stress plus how nutritionally-draining it had been to be pregnant and nurse kiddo #1, and then kiddo #2 combined to leave me vulnerable to this type of stuff. Life stress is really nutritionally draining too, and that added up for me.

[momma_unlimited]

I swear by Wish Garden's Mastitis Cure... Its an herbal blend with poke root... Wish Garden is a company in Boulder, Co and I had them overnight the tincture to me on recommendation of my friend who used it. I had tried homeopathy (my husband is a homeopath) and every other natural remedy under the sun (except colloidial silver), was on bedrest, etc- that tincture did it. They also make an herbal compress which I used as well.

My first bout with a plugged duct (never got a fever) was so bad I had to have the abcess surgically drained (but managed to avoid abx with much persuasion on my part)- it was awful. So when I felt another plug and got a fever, in addition to the tincture, I made lifestyle changes - no underwire bras, EVER- and changing positions when nursing more frequently... haven't gotten another in over a year.

[Nillarilla]

My mw had me use quark cheese smeared on the breast after each feeding for 15min. I also pumped after every feed to drain the infection out. This worked for my 2 bouts of mastitis.

[PatioGardener]

How are you feeling today, Mama?