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Originally Posted by nursingmom  My sister has a one month-old, and this is already her third time with fever/mastitis. She's been on antiobiotic since Tuesday, and she's still struggling with fever (today is Friday). She's ready to give up nursing. She's placing hot compress on her breast/ massaging/ pumping/ and nursing on that side first with each feeding.
Anyone had similar experience with reoccuring mastitis? I keep telling her that things will get better. But will it?
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Yes!! I had LOTS of bouts with mastitis with my little one. Tell her not to give up hope!
1) Lots and LOTS of raw garlic or garlic pills really knocked my mastitis out whenver I'd start to feel it coming on. I would get that feeling like it was starting to come on, start garlic right away, and never actually get it. PLEASE tell her to do lots of garlic. It must be raw. Or either the pills. If she wants to go the way of the raw type, take a clove, and cut it up into pill sized peices and swallow whole (with a drink) like pills. Do it like every hour if she feels it coming on.
2) Does she have thrush issues? If so, they can cause repeated mastitis if left unchecked, even if the thrust doesnt seem severe. When I took acidophilus pills (the refridgerated type) on a regular basis, I didn't get mastitis as often.
3) GET MEASURED BY A PROFFESSIONAL FOR A GOOD BRA!! The majority of women walk around in the wrong bra size. THIS IS DETRIMENTAL TO YOUR NURSING RELATIONSHIP IF YOU HAPPEN TO ONE OF THOSE WOMEN LIKE US WHO ARE PRONE TO MASTITIS. I can't say the following often enough: Motherhood people are not proffessionals (where I made my mistake with my bra size was listening to them tell me what size I wore...I went months believing them and months getting mastitis). A lot of these chain lingerie stores are not good either. Find a bra boutique and get properly measured. Invest in 2 or 3 really good bras. Don't do underwire bras until you get the mastitis occurrences under control. (She can try a quality underwire nursing bra later after she gets her mastitis bouts under control to see if they affect her or not if she wants to, some people don't have problems with them, some do...) I liked goddess. If I looked at an underwire, I got mastitis, and I wear a g-cup.
I liked Goddess because I got the type with no underwire and got EXCELLENT support and my mastitis occurrences dramatically decreased after I switched to goddess in the proper size. When I told my bra measuring lady what size i wore she was like "
No shug. You wear
this size." I was like....oh.
: I was WAYYYY off.
>>>a side note on bras. There are bras that you can use for nursing in. And then there are nursing bras. Cheap nursing bras are basically just regularly cut average bras with cuttouts/latches/hooks etc for easy access nursing. Good quality *nursing bras* are actually made to accomodate all the extra little hidden milk ducts that regular bras may cut off. Cutting them off causes them to get blocked and causes mastitis. Good quality nursing bras may be a bit more expensive. but trust this cheap mama when I say, my goddess was my best friend, and you REALLY need to spend that money for them
Anyhow, I have to say that during the 3 years I nursed my munchkin, I had mastitis at least 10 times (very well could have been more) before I figured it all out. But tell her to hang in there!!
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