This weeks WORRY:
What should I do, Oh my doG, I am soooo cold, what am I supposed to do again? My whole body aches…… but if I keep nursing on that side won’t it just make it make more milk so it will never ungorge? I feel so horrible, should I just go get antibiotics? Its not so bad, maybe I can go to work…… what am I supposed to do again? “partner-majigger” can you look it up online? MASTITIS.
I had some personal experience this week when mister-baby-head stopped nursing so much at night (yippee!!!????) and left me with a big fat, hot, streaky, engorged and oh so tender boobie. After a little more worrying, I finally surrendered and:
sent said partner-majigger to the store for:
fresh ginger clump
head of cabbage
Echinacea tincture
whole food vitamin C
and then did this:
took a long hot bath
ingested 1,000 mg whole food C and dropper of echinacea in water (twice a day is good)
WENT TO BED…… not later, not if it gets worse, but NOW
hot ginger compresses
drink drink drink
nurse nurse nurse (in different positions)
try the husband hoover maneouver (don’t ask – it is what you think it is!)
express express express (you can balance it back out later!)
magical Cabbage Poultice (in between nursing and expressing – just put a leaf on your boob to soothe inflamation)
and reminded myself:
I only need antibiotics if:
My fever is rising. OR
I am feeling progressively sicker as the hours go by.
Mastitis can turn into an infection and then an abscess, so do be careful and use your Soft Animal intuition about when to get outside help.
My recent bout flared up in the night and after a day of slowly-decreasing bed-ridden whiney delerium, I felt the clouds break at dusk. I felt so much better I realized how sick I had been…. maybe, I wasn’t just a pathetic loser-mommie….and my mastitis had completely subsided by the next morning….. Every couple hours I felt better so I knew it was ok to avoid antibiotics, but if you do need them…… you can always recover with healing foods…… but that is another story.
{ 2 comments… read them below or add one }
I battled severe reoccurring mastitis for several months when nursing my 4th child.
It got to be routine enough that I no longer dragged my husband along to the hospital with me, despite my fevered state.
During one of my multiple repeated visits to the Emergency room, I decided that I would take the antibiotics prescription home, set it aside & get myself better using natural means. I also set a goal to use no antibiotics for a year. That was pretty ambitious, since they were recommending that I just stay on antibiotics prophylactically, at the time.
My baby was only 5 months old, and I knew that prophylactic antibiotics would mean… weaning.
And he was sick, too.
It has now been 8 years… I never took the antibiotics, I nursed my baby till he was 18 months old, and I have nursed two more babies since, as well.
I became an expert in treating mastitis using herbs & essential oils…. and I had some pretty tough cases!
I also found that, although sleep deprivation was definitely a huge factor in getting mastitis, I could be as sleep deprived as I wanted and NEVER get mastitis, as long as I stayed away from SUGAR!
The added bonus was that this approach eliminated my chronic bladder & vaginal yeast infections as well.
Working on restoring my beneficial gut bacteria has helped immensely, so that the slightest bit of sugar doesn’t set me off on a simultaneous triple round of mastitis/yeast/bladder infections anymore.
But I don’t really enjoy sugar much anymore, either, so… There!
@Shannon: Thank you sooo much for sharing your story…. kudos to you for seeking out and finding your way with mastitis and reminding all of us about the SUGAR piece of the puzzle! And the part about beneficial bacteria! Lacto-fermented vegetables and condiments, sodas and tonics….. Healing foods for sure!