Friend has mastitis..is this the end of the road? Pls help!

[Layla]

Hi ladies

One of my good friends has mastitis . She has been on 2 sets of antibiotics and last week she was admitted to the hospital. I believe they drained the blockage but she has now been told by her DR that she needs to dry them up. She's started doing that and she feels really engorged and is in a lot of pain. She wants to breastfeed, she's really sad about the whole thing and has been to see a naturopath yesterday seeking alternative medicine before drying up. They gave her a couple of things to fight the infection (the infection won't go away!) and I told her I would see if anyone has btdt.

I'm trying to encourage her to register here but if anyone has a word of advice, that would be greatly appreciated. Her baby is 9 weeks old and so far she's been expressing for her and feeding out of the bottle

TIA

[MasynSpencerElliotte]

Oh no! Lots of healthy vibes, sorry no btdt!

[*Ali*]

Has she seen a specialist or is that just a GP saying she needs to stop?
Do you know if it is because she is on medicine she shouldn't BF on or is it to avoid recurrence the dr is saying to stop?
I would definitely want a second opinion. Can she see a LC? Maybe there are changes to positioning or timing of feeds she can make that will allow her to continue.

I have had mastitis twice when feeding my DS2 but luckily it cleared up with antibiotics both times so it was never as serious as your friend's thankfully. I never had it again after that and fed for another 18 months or so.

There is some helpful info here
Mastitis/Plugged Ducts
http://kellymom.com/bf/concerns/mother/mastitis/
http://www.lalecheleague.org/nb/nbmarapr07p76.html