Help! Can't feed or express...

D

Daya

Registered User
If anyone has any advice, I'd really appreciate it. I'm feeling quite worried at the moment and don't really know what to do. I have a bad case of mastitis... But it seems to be getting worse. I had a sore spot under my arm on Thursday night, then woke up at 4am with a fever, aches and shivers and bright red streaks across my breast. I went straight to the doctor who took one look and prescribed antibiotics, rest and lots of feeding/expressing.
That's where I've been having trouble. I feel like I'm trying to do all the right things... Hot packs before feeding, cold in between, feeding from the sore side first, hand expressing in the bath/shower... But it's just not working. My breast is really full and red and so hard and lumpy around the nipple that I just can't get the milk out. My baby gets so frustrated on that side that she pulls on and off and now my nipple is split and open right across the middle. I guess I'm having a hard time letting down as it's so painful, but I've also tried starting her on the good side then switching once I've let down.
The most I can get with the pump is about 40-50 mls... But the breast doesn't feel drained.
I'm really stuck and really worried. The last thing I want is for my milk to dry up. My daughter is 10 1/2 months old and I'd like to feed her for a while yet.
Anyone been in a spot like this? What works?! Thanks so much.
 
I feel your frustration. I had heaps of problems with breastfeeding for my first child. At this stage, I suggest that you contact la leche league http://www.lllhk.org/. I've always found them very helpful. If they can't help you on the spot, they can recommend a lactation consultant in your area. Best to leave this with the experts. All the best.
 
I think on top of the antibiotics you will likely need some anti-inflammatories as well to bring the swelling and inflammation down.

Are you able to hand express at all? Sometimes that gets more milk out than pumping. I would recommend my lactation consultant mrs chee. She is very good, let me know if you want her contact details.
 
Sorry just read that you had tried hand expressing. I agree talk to LLL or a Lactation consultant. Nurofen helped me with the pain and inflammation when I had engorgement and blocked ducts.
 
Thank you both for your care and suggestions. I had actually called Mrs Chee and then wrote this as I couldn't get through and was out of ideas! She ended up having a cancellation and I've just come back from seeing her. Turns out it's a yeast infection on top of the mastitis, swelling rather than engorgement and a diminished supply. A bit of a long road ahead, but at least I know what's going on and can treat it accordingly.
Thanks again. I really appreciate you both having got back to me.
 
Ouch! I feel your pain as I too had a yeast infection with my first LO and the pain is just shocking!!!!! Not to mention the million different things you need to do to try to get rid of it. So I'm feeling for you.

Good luck, I'm glad you got to see her.
 
There is also a good place called Nest for Mums who meet every Tuesday. They may be able to help.
 
The only way I can get my blocked duct unblocked is with the baby nursing with his chin directly on top of the blocked area. Unfortunately, the block is always located at 2 o'clock, so this means that I place the baby with his head raised on an adult pillow. Then, I kneel over him - my head pointing to his toes, to get the position right. It's always the last thing I try, because I keep hoping that something else will work - warm compress, cold compress, massage, ibuprofen, sonic vibrations, etc., but in the end, it's always the only one that works. Hopefully, the medicine for the yeast infection and mastitis means you're getting some relief. Please keep persevering with the breast feeding, if it's what you want to do. Your milk supply on the affected side may go down temporarily, but it'll come back up when your daughter continues to suckle on that side.
 
I feel for you! We had a terrible case of thrush too. Yeast is quite difficult to get rid of. I had several blocked ducts from the yeast and luckily with lots of massaging in the shower and constant nursing on that side, the blocked duct would usually sort itself out. We went thru bottles of nystatin - treating myself ands baby at the same time. It didn't work for us. What finally worked was gentian violet solution plus heaps of probiotics. Keep pumping and nursing...you're doing to right thing.
 
Daya said:
If anyone has any advice, I'd really appreciate it. I'm feeling quite worried at the moment and don't really know what to do. I have a bad case of mastitis... But it seems to be getting worse. I had a sore spot under my arm on Thursday night, then woke up at 4am with a fever, aches and shivers and bright red streaks across my breast. I went straight to the doctor who took one look and prescribed antibiotics, rest and lots of feeding/expressing.
That's where I've been having trouble. I feel like I'm trying to do all the right things... Hot packs before feeding, cold in between, feeding from the sore side first, hand expressing in the bath/shower... But it's just not working. My breast is really full and red and so hard and lumpy around the nipple that I just can't get the milk out. My baby gets so frustrated on that side that she pulls on and off and now my nipple is split and open right across the middle. I guess I'm having a hard time letting down as it's so painful, but I've also tried starting her on the good side then switching once I've let down.
The most I can get with the pump is about 40-50 mls... But the breast doesn't feel drained.
I'm really stuck and really worried. The last thing I want is for my milk to dry up. My daughter is 10 1/2 months old and I'd like to feed her for a while yet.
Anyone been in a spot like this? What works?! Thanks so much.
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I've been in your predicament more times than I'd like to count--having suffered mastitis and thrush. Here is my list of things that worked:

For mastitis--even though it hurts like heck--nurse on your knees. I would literally have to kneel on top of my daughter and nurse on my knees with my breast dangling into her mouth. Then I would rotate around her so her nose would be pointed toward different areas of my breast every time I turned. So, I'd nurse at "12 o'clock" for about 5 minutes and then rotate to "3 o'clock" for another 5 minutes etc. This unclogged the duct that was blocked. Even if you aren't suffering the same infection symptoms because you've killed the bacteria you can still have a plugged duct. I still remember when one of those clots came loose--my daughter was coughing and sputtering.

Take a pain killer regularly to help "beat the pain" before its onset. So pop a panadol or two every 4 hours or as often as you can safely do so this will help with the swelling and inflammation.

Grapefruit Seed Extract--this will help kill all the thrush in your body without harming the good bacteria. Take 10-15 drops of the stuff in water 2 or 3 times/day. It is the most awful, bitter stuff I've ever drank but I've built up a tolerance to it. You can also dilute it in pure water and apply it to the nipples as a topical treatment.

Gentian violet. Forget Nystatin--for thrush that won't quit, gentian is the end-all. It's awful to work with and will turn your child's mouth blue/purple but it works--better than anything else.

Coconut oil--it also has anit-fungal properties. Get a good organic coconut oil (I can suggest a place but it's a tiny shop out by where we live) and apply it to the breasts and nipples after every feed and every shower. Coconut oil changed my breastfeeding experience. See here and here for the story.

Probiotics. Can't say enough about having probiotics in your diet anyway.

Low sugar diet. Cut out all the carbs you can (including bread, rice, milk, sugar) and go on an all-veggie and meat diet and it will help a lot. Sugar and carbs feed yeast (thrush).

Drink a green powder drink (such as barley sprout powder--available at Green Dot Dot). I also take chlorella--helps your body detox all the nasties its fighting.

Get on a good supplement.

Take a good quality fish oil.

Rest and drink a lot of water.
 
I'm sorry to hear you are having so much trouble. It is a painful & exhausting experience. I have heard that ultrasounds can be good for blocked ducts but I don't know who does that in HK. I would also recommend doing upper arm, shoulder exercises as tens chest muscles can impede let down. I would highly recommend getting in touch with LLL. Wishing you the very best & a speedy recovery.
 
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