Pain in my boob.. terrified I'll develop another abscess

[Sophiejash]

Ok with my first child I tried breast feeding it didn't work out and at 6 weeks I developed an abscess, my goodness it was horrendous and the pain worse than labour. Needless to say all breast feeding stopped after that. This time my son is 3 weeks old, the breast feeding is still hit and miss but I'm expressing 3 times a day to help prevent build up of milk and also getting him to latch on when he can. I am massaging my boobs every time I express and desperate to not let the abscess repeat itself. However I have a very painful pain deep in my left boob (every time my daughter knocks it .. ouch) but I have no redness of the skin or obvious lump (from what I can tell just the obvious hardness of a boob containing milk). I'm taking ibuprofen to help reduce any swelling, putting heat packs on my boob etc but terrified that it doesn't seem to be working. Anyone experienced anything similar and any tips for me?

 

[noon_child]

Did you ever work out what caused the abscess with your first child? Was LO effective at drawing milk out, could there have been a tongue tie or something? I know some people are just prone to mastitis but often it is a symptom of a latch or sucking issue (some of which can be genetic).

I don't think an abscess should form if you get antibiotics soon enough, although if you don't manage to fix the cause and get the milk flowing again it might, but what I'm saying is that if you suspect mastitis don't wait for it to get worse. I reckon your doctor would prefer to see you unnecessarily than too late!

 

[Sophiejash]

Thanks, I developed I fever the day after I posted so went straight to the doctor and they've although the area hadn't gone red yet they out me in a double dose of antibiotics for a week. On Thursday the area went red but I was told it takes 48 hours for antibiotics to kick in so I could get worse before it gets better and Friday they discovered my son was tongue tied so we've had that sorted. Since then feeding has been better though I'm still struggling to latch him properly at times but all the sore areas of my boobs have gone and the redness has gone right down. So I think everything should be ok now thank god. I'm keeping a very close eye on it all though. I just need to master the latch so it's not stringing when he feeds.

 

[Sophiejash]

Oh and as for the first time my daughter wasn't tongue tied but she point black refused to latch properly and I lost a lot of blood during the labour so was very anemic which doctors thought may have been why it developed so quickly

 

[noon_child]

Traumatic births can really have an effect on breastfeeding, so I'm sorry you went through that with your first.

Glad you are now on the mend and feeding seems to be going better with the new LO. You are doing great!