I have a 4 month old baby and now am on my 4th bout of mastitis. I have been weaning for 1 month now, and am almost dried out. I guess I needed it one more time as a reminder of my miserable BFing experiance.
I started taking antibiotics (doc gave me 5 days worth incase my mastitis came back because I was hospitalized for 4 days last time) as soon as I felt the pain, and so far I am not getting much sicker.

It is hell and I cant wait till I am dry!

I had mastitis yesterday. It started at 2 p.m. with a sore breast and slight chills. By 4:00 I was shaking, and by 4:30 my fever was 104.8. I felt incredibly hot, and my body was aching terribly. I had red marks on my breast.

This is how I treated it and was completely better by 7:00 a.m. when I woke up. I drank many glasses of water with sodium ascorbate (vitamin C powder) mixed in. (About 2-3 grams per glass, wasn’t real scientific about it). I took NO Tylenol or anything for the fever. Hot disposable diaper compresses on my breast, massaged the sore spot on my breast, and nursed my baby whenever he was willing. I stayed in bed, and slept a lot, which was fairly easy since it was nighttime. My fever went down throughout the night, and by morning, it was completely gone.

I had mastitis with my second son. I had the flu like symptoms and my breast was extremely engorged and hurt to the touch. My midwife told me to take golden seal and vitamin C and it was gone after 24 hours. It was actually kind of nice b/c I got to stay in bed with my 2 month old and my 2 year old went to grandma’s while hubby worked around the house. I got to watch TV and nurse the baby and sleep with him all day! I’m really lucky it wasn’t as bad as most, but I’m certain it’s b/c my midwife told me to take the herbs and vitamins. Anyway, thought I’d share my experience!

I had mastitis once with my son and then WAY too often with my daughter…my second child…which was much more difficult because my son was running around and I couldn’t get the rest I needed.

I would read, “just lie in bed with your infant next to you and nurse throughout the entire day.” Sounded like a dream!!! I think it came on more with my second too because I wasn’t getting the rest I needed.

But we made it through…15 months for each child…my greatest accomplishment outside of giving birth to them!

Count me in. I went through this twice, with one of my sons and then with one of my daughters. I would have rather had gone through labor again. Labor with a 15 pound baby.

i had full-blown mastitis once and i have never felt so sick. i thought i was having morning sickness again. I had one duct that was always the one that would get plugged and i got very good at using a sewing needle to break the plug before it turned into mastitis. (that sounds horrible. but nothing as horrible as having mastitis!)

thanks for talking about this.
wishgarden herbs makes a mastitis remedy that works pretty well if you catch it in the early stages. another key to getting rid of mastitis is rest. lots and lots of rest and continued breastfeeding. hot compresses can help to relieve some of the pain as well.

I actually had mastitis when I was 15. I’ve never had kids and my pediatrician was puzzled so he sent me to an OB/GYN and he diagnosed it. He said he has treated several teenagers with the same problem, likely from wearing too tight sports bras.

It was very painful and I had to stay home from school for a week because I couldn’t wear a bra (that was a requirement at my school). Hot compresses are definitely your best friend if you get mastitis.

i had it with my son,and i woke up telling my husband i was ‘still shaking’,and it freaked him out..i actually had not been shaking when i went to bed,he didn’t know about it and neither did i..except perhaps in my dreams,since i was confused and thought i had gone to bed shaking. i was a bit out of it at first,but then i realized what was happening. i tried to take care of it,and was taking a warm bath..when i saw a read area with pink streaks radiating out away from it. i knew then as natural as i like to be,i needed the antibiotics,it had gone too far too quickly and it was not going to go away by itself no matter how hard i tried (i actually stopped breastfeeding then. my son was 10 days old i believe,and could not breastfeed. i blamed myself so much,still wish i would have tried harder and in fact tried now and then even when he was 5 months old but he would not latch. i later learned that is common with children with autism. w e had to explore many different bottle nipple shapes and formulas for him before we found something that worked so he could feed properly :/ however,my daughter is three and still nursing strong and has from the start. i just wish it would have worked that way for my little guy. in the future,if i notice a newborn of mine having trouble it will make me nervous i am sure.)

I had mastitis in both breasts 4 days after my son arrived – it was the WORST i’ve ever felt, even the labour was heaps better than having mastitis.. I had 2 weeks of antibiotics and was OK after that. I was never really told about mastitis. Breastfeeding is already hard (for some) and when you throw in cracked and bleeding nipples, engorgement and mastitis, it’s a minefield. Props to the women who get through it though x