Mastitis, do you NEED antibiotics?

[nuddle]

I think I am heading that way, my temp is up, not much, but I just feel yuck, and one of my breasts is sore.... I really dont want to take any antibiotics if I can avoid it, and am wondering has anyone had mastitis, and battled it without drugs? just by draining the breast??

[Mell]

Keep feeding from the side that hurts as much as possible and every time you jump into the shower, keep massaging it towards your nipple. I hope it gets better for you, but don't let it get to bad before you go to the docs. Good luck.

[Chumps]

Most of the time if it's a bloked duct, you can work thorugh it by expressing, expressing, expressing. When I've had it a few times, I continuously hand express during the day, working over the red patch towards the nipple. It's hurts a lot, but if you are not showing any improvement within approx 24 hours by doing this, then might be worth a trip to your gp. Early on in my breastfeeding, I had 2 cases that required antibiotics & 3 cases of bocked ducts that I managed to ward away before anything too sinister set in. Good luck.

[punkbaby]

Fingers crossed you can work it out yourself (meaning massage it out) pretty much as everyone else has said i found putting a warm flannel when feeding and massaging when feeding too, offering the infected side first eased it in a few days :) Good luck with it

[Jenko]

^^^
What they all said....

I have got rid of a few blocked ducts and one that had me starting to get the flu like symptoms without getting to mastitis stage so far.

Hot face wash as you massage the breast. Lots of feeding and expressing. Cold pack afterwards. A disposable nappy soaked with about a quarter of a cup of water and put in the freezer works great as a cold pack. It kind of moulds around the breast and doesn't melt cold water all over you. After you have finished you can pop it back in the freezer. You could even try 2 nappies, one on the top and one on the bottom.

Try feeding bubs with her nose pointed towards lump. Bit hard sometimes, maybe try 'football hold'.

I actually felt like I had bruised my breast with the amount of massaging and hand expressing, but by the next day my breast felt completely normal.

Good Luck, hope you get it in time. :)