mastitis...feeling terrible

[abharrington]

dd is 12 months old and i came down with mastitis for the 1st time on sunday. i have been and sitll am quite miserable. my doctor called in an abx rx and i have been taking tylenol for the fever (which seems to be gone) but i am still pretty weak and a little nauseated.

is there anything else i can do or take to help speed the recovery?

thanks mamas

[PatioGardener]

I'm so sorry you're feeling icky. Have you started the antibiotics yet? Are you still nursing as much as possible? Draining the infected breast (nursing is most efficient, but pumping is better than notheing) helps, and getting as much rest as possible helps to. (easier said than done, I know.)

Are you able to work out what caused it, to avoid mastitis in the future? Sometimes moms will realise they have new bra, or are using a new carrier or something like that.

[abharrington]

hmm...i dont' have any clue what could have caused it. no new bras or carriers. anybody know what else could cause mastitis?

Thanks!

[Nathan1097]

The time I got it was when I slept all night instead of nursed. (The baby was only less than a month old, though.) (My dh fed the baby with pumped milk.) Pumping the infected breast helped, along with the antibiotics and lots of rest. Boy! I remember feeling exhausted and totally "flu-ish" - all of the sudden.

[meowee]

Switch to advil instead of tylenol as it's an anti-inflammatory, and you want to keep those ducts from swelling. Take it for at least 3 days even after you feel better. Check with your doc but for severe pain I believe you can take twice the label dosage.

I've made a lot of posts about mastitis in the BFing forums, you might want to look at the recurring mastitis thread above.

I would avoid slinging or any other upper body exertion, even slight exertion. This can cause duct swelling which = clogged milk which = septic milk, which becomes systemic and turns into mastitis.

[Nathan1097]

Originally Posted by meowee

Switch to advil instead of tylenol as it's an anti-inflammatory, and you want to keep those ducts from swelling. Take it for at least 3 days even after you feel better. Check with your doc but for severe pain I believe you can take twice the label dosage.

I've made a lot of posts about mastitis in the BFing forums, you might want to look at the recurring mastitis thread above.

I would avoid slinging or any other upper body exertion, even slight exertion. This can cause duct swelling which = clogged milk which = septic milk, which becomes systemic and turns into mastitis.

Ah yes- now I remember ("the baby" is 10 now): They said to put warm wash cloths on my breasts, too.

[treehugginhippie]

Best remedy for me for mastitis was rest. I had a couple times when dd was over 12 mo where I'd not notice that I had a plugged duct. By the time I noticed and got it unplugged I had chills, fever and just overall feeling "flu-like". I would immediately go and sleep and wake up 1000 x's better.

[tanyalynn]

For me, mastitis was related to feeling stressed and rundown.

[ErikaLeigh]

Here is an article on a few ways to help treat and cure mastitis from AC.

http://www.associatedcontent.com/art..._mastitis.html

[nylecoj]

Originally Posted by abharrington

dd is 12 months old and i came down with mastitis for the 1st time on sunday. i have been and sitll am quite miserable. my doctor called in an abx rx and i have been taking tylenol for the fever (which seems to be gone) but i am still pretty weak and a little nauseated.

is there anything else i can do or take to help speed the recovery?

thanks mamas

Gah. I'm right there with you, but dd is 13mos. I didn't have time to pump yesterday, have been sick for two weeks, and bam! Woke up with a very tender breast.

Jeeeeezo.