Engorgement and infection? Poss a bit TMI!

[Lu28]

It's been a rough couple of days as far as bfing goes! Aisling seems to be going through a difficult phase with feeding and sleeping and refused to feed at all during the night last night. I woke up at 3am to find my left boob to be incredibly sore, full and hard in spots. I figured it was engorged because I took fenugreek for the first time yesterday and with Aisling messing around with feeds I probably had a bit of an over supply. I was absolutely freezing when I woke up (I was in the spare room to get rest, Aisling wouldn't settle at all) but DH said the room I was in was pretty cold. I was shivering pretty much uncontrollably though.

I tried expressing using the pump and only managed 30ml after 2 hours so gave up and went back to sleep. Aisling has fed off it this morning and it's feeling a little better. I massaged the area and did some hand expression and after doing that I've noticed that there's green pus coming out with the milk where I've obviously disturbed some blockage. I'm about to go up for a shower to see if I can loosen it a bit more and then get her feeding again.

I'm just wondering if I should go to the doc to get it checked out. I'm not shivering anymore but do have red spots on my breast (but that could be from expressing). A couple of websites have said to try and self treat for a day and see what happens while others say go to the doc straight away to avoid complications - has anyone else had this and what did you do to treat it?

 

[Mervs Mum]

I'm a big fan of letting nature take it's course. I dont even take headache tablets if I can help it - I think I'd like drugs to be effective if I need them so I steer clear unless I'm really bad!

Purists would probably say avoid anti biotics at all costs. I say give it 48/72 hours and if you dont see an improvment then see you GP.