New to huggies/mastitis

Hi
I have been reading posts for a while now and though I should join in> I have a 11 1/2 month old girl who is the light of my life although she is currently flexing her muscles and testing boundries. i am still breastfeeding and have mastitis at the moment, Does anyone have any suggestions as I only want to use antibiodics as a last resort

Hi Gewle,
I have heard that placing cold cabbage leaves in your bra can help heal mastitis. Also, expressing in the shower with the water running over your breasts can help ease the pain. I have tried the expressing when I was breastfeeding (stopped when Ryan was 3 months, now is 11 months), and it felt great. The mastitis was only starting, as I could feel the hard lumps in my breasts, and it worked wonders. Also, when I was stopping breastfeeding, I started to get it, and I just let Ryan drink more from that breast, which helped 'unclog' me.
Hope this works.

I think the best thing for mastitis is to 'flush out' your breasts. If you want to continue breastfeeding, then do it as much as possible, gently masaging any lumps as you do so. Don't look at antibiotics as the enemy, antibiotics eliminate infections which would have killed us 100 years ago. Just make sure you only take them if you have an infection which antibiotics can kill, (like severe mastitis!!!)
I'm glad you're still breastfeeding at this stage, my daughter weaned herself at 8 months, much to my distress!!!

Hi Gewie,
I have survived two bouts of mastitis some of the
thngs that I have done and have had suggested to me were:

*Always empty the effected breast first
*Hot compress prior to a feed to ensure that the breast empties properly and cold compress after to relieve pain
*When massaging the breast use the palm of your hand and genly massage towards the nipple (preferably in a hot shower or bath)
*Massage breast post feed/during feed if able
*Keep the effected breast empty so try expressing as much as u can
*Try panadol prior to a feed to relieve pain
*Hot tea bags (camomile) on sore spot
Hope this helps... Hang in there it does get better!!

Thanks for your suggestions everyone the cabbage leaves and getting DD to drink more worked and its now it just a little tender when getting full. I would have taken antibiodics but DD has some pretty bad allergies and we didnt know how she would react. Dr wanted me to use them only as a last resort. I am so glad i didnt and let my body fight it itself. Lets hope thats the first and last time I have to put up with that!

Hi Leah, I hope by the time you read this post you are feeling better. I have a DS who is 11 months old and when he was only a few months old I had mastitis on alternating breasts, three times. It's awful, it was worse than the birth I swear!!! I would clench my teeth and have tears in my eyes when DS fed (as others have posted, it's good to keep feeding, although PAINFUL). At first I didn't realise that I had mastitis (new mum, no clue!!) I just thought I had a shocking flu coming on. It wasn't until my temperature got to 39 degrees that I clicked what may have been happening. I have a homeopathic first aid kit at home and once I realised what was wrong I took the remedy 'APIS' I started feeling better within half an hour!!! I was like yourself, I didn't want to take drugs if I could help it (sometimes I realise this is not always possible) My advice would be to visit a homeopath or visit a health food store with a dispensary and ask about homeopathic remedies, they are VERY safe, cheap and can work miracles if you are given the correct remedy (I think Belladonna was the other remedy for mastitis) I also realised that when I stopped feeding on demand and spaced DS feeds out to every 4 hours, I never got mastitis again. Hope any of this helps, good luck. Regards, Fel.