Reoccurant mastitis

[newgirlintown]

Hi Ladies, 

I have just come down with what is probably my third case of mastitis in 4 months. It is always in the same place, on my R breast, which is the main milk producing breast. 

The first time, Doc put me on Diclocil for 7 days. I felt better after 3 days but finished the course. 

The second time, I was on vacation and I started with garlic and vitamin C and by the time I made it to the doc just to be sure, my blood showed no signs of infection. 

Now, the third time, it is Saturday, so I am taking garlic and vitamin C throughout the day and using heat and massage. I feel bad, but not as bad as I did the last two times. I woke up in the night and felt a lump starting to form so I fed DD from that side and now I feel no hard lump, but it is red and sore in the spot.

Other info: I take lethicin every day. I have breast ezcema since DD was 6 months which means that sometimes I get cracks on my nipples. I have a bad one now, and I am not sure if that is contributing. My doctor knows about the ezcema, but because last time he didn't find bacteria in my blood, thinks that I didn't have mastitis last time, but I know I did, I had all the symptoms. My DD (10.5 months), eats frequently throughout the day and night, and always has. I think what caused the infection this time is that I was trying to encourage her to drink from the non-cracked side, which doesn't produce very much milk, because I was trying to give the R side a chance to heal. But that meant that I wasn't properly draining the R side. I feel so stupid and annoyed, because I should have pumped on that side, but I can't go back and change it. 

DH has already started in with "you should stop breastfeeding, it just keeps making you sick" which drives me crazy. 

Any advice from you mamas? Thank you so much. 

[kitchensqueen]

I'm dealing with the same thing right now. I've currently got my second case in two and a half months. Fortunately my husband isn't taking on that sentiment; sorry to hear yours is. He's probably just having a hard time seeing you laid up with it. 

A couple of things that you could try that I don't see mentioned above (if you haven't already tried them) -

Stay hydrated and well nourished. 

Do a saline soak on your nipples. 

Put yourself on bed rest and get plenty of sleep. 

Feed/pump every two hours until it clears up. 

Loosen your bra/top so nothing is compressing your breast. 

Then again I've been doing all of these things, and here I am again... 

At any rate, you might want to read this page and this page at Kellymom if you haven't already. 

[sunflwrmoonbeam]

Another idea is to use breast compression when nursing/expressing on the R side. The key to beating mastitis is to keep the breast reasonably empty.

[newgirlintown]

Thanks for the replies!

I know, I really need to work on staying hydrated. I used to be so good at this but I go hours without water on some days. Not good!

And great tip about breast compression! I didn't know it was a tool for combatting frequent plugged ducts and mastitis. And it will likely help since I know lots of the time DD just likes to suck. 

Im feeling better today, but the duct is still plugged, so I'll keep at it and try to remember that this annoying situation can come up if I don't take excellent care of myself! ;)

Hope you feel better soon kitchensqueen!

[kitchensqueen]

Thanks, you too! Mastitis sucks. :-(