Carnival of Breastfeeding: “Thrush and mastitis and blebs, oh my!”

Welcome to April’s Carnival of Breastfeeding where this month’s topic is “Thrush and mastitis and blebs, oh my!“. Thanks for stopping by, I hope you enjoy your visit!

In my 17+ months of breastfeeding I have encountered a few issues, some I’ve shared on this blog, some were in the misty hazy pre-blog days. I’ve dealt with flat nipples, battled a bleb, massaged many a blocked duct, teetered on the edge of mastitis, and had oversupply for the first eleven months.

The oversupply was, to be fair to it, a mixed blessing. It had its bad points, it was responsible for my blocked ducts and my having to swear off porridge for months. I spent a small fortune on breastpads (the cloth ones leaked through in no time at all)! But it also gave me the confidence to know that I had enough milk to feed my growing baby, and enough milk to donate to the milk bank for several months. Thankfully, it never seemed to really bother littlepixie, she seemed delighted with the huge amount of milkies!

So when it (finally) resolved at about 11 months, I was happy to not feel so full all the time, but also I was a little sad as I no longer had spare milk for the milk bank. I still notice its legacy, my boobs are only too happy to make more milk when littlepixie is sick and off her solids, a bit of extra nursing and a bit of porridge and we’re off! I still occasionally need the breastpads but usually now a quick arm-crossing will stop any leaks! I am also still slightly prone to blocked ducts which leads me onto my next issue…

I’ve had a few run-ins with blocked ducts/plugged ducts or indeed blocked ducks (as my stats page regularly shows up in the search terms which lead people here).

I’ve had to become very vigilant in checking my boobs in the shower every morning for any potential trouble spots and then massaging them to clear them up.

I’ve found a big bobbly hairbrush to be the business for massaging them. Littlepixie is only too happy to feed to clear them up, but it can be a delicate balancing act, don’t want to encourage the enthusiastic boobs to make even more milk!

I have also used the “grated potato” cure for blocked milk ducts, don’t know if it works but it is an excellent way to amuse your husband, mother, father, sister and visiting aunt if you are so inclined (note to self: make sure one is not staying with parents while trying “grated potato” cure next time).

So really the best thing for me is prevention, getting enough sleep, drinking plenty of water, avoiding tight bras or any pressure on my boobs and keeping on top of littlepixie’s feeding “schedule”, using “schedule” in the loosest possible way there I should add! My blocked ducts almost led to mastitis once, back when littlepixie was about 2 months old…

I didn’t know then how quickly it could all go downhill, and a blocked duct progress to mastitis, but I found out quite quickly with my very first blocked duct!

Babypixie slept for 6 hours straight one night, the same night that I slept with my arm bunched up uncomfortably under my boob. Any other time neither of these may have caused a problem, that night a duct blocked. I woke at 3:00 am in agony with the boob already reddening. But I was so determined to “sleep when the baby sleeps” and so amazed that she might be about to “sleep through the night” that I stubbornly went back to sleep after taking two paracetamol.

When I woke in the morning I felt awful, really flu-ey and sick. I called my mother-in-law to tell her I had the flu and not to visit, and within an hour my (LLL-leader) sister-in-law called me back to question me! I was so thankful she had, I was a bit clueless about it all then (this was in my pre-blog, pre-foruming days you see!).

She reckoned I was on a slippery slope to mastitis and I was immediately confined to my bed, Mr. Halfpintpixie was ordered to wait on me hand and foot and babypixie was fed, fed, fed, usually while she lay on the bed and I dangled over her, if anyone had seen us! In between feeds I massaged my boob (which had a bright red patch on it by now) in the shower and rested some more. That night babypixie and Mr. HPP slept in one room and I set my alarm for every two hours to pop in and feed babypixie in her sleep and within a day or so it slowly cleared up and my brush with almost-mastitis was over! It was very painful but I think the most painful of all has to be the dreaded bleb…

I got a bleb when littlepixie was about 10 months old. According to the blog post I wrote back then “nursing feels like dispensing glass shards and isn’t a whole lot of fun“. Gosh I’m glad time has erased that memory! I scrubbed at it in the shower and did the usual feed, feed, feed and it cleared up. But it hurt something shocking, I remember feeling like I had back at the start when my nipples were in tatters and I dreaded every feed, the wonders of training flat nipples to unflatten!

I had a bloody (literally) awful time with my flat nipples at the start, I devoted another carnival post to it a few months ago, but to cut a long story short, it took at least 10 weeks for me to stop curling my toes in pain at every feed and I’d say about 12 weeks for me to start enjoying feeds. My latching was never textbook perfect, more improvised! I found a couple of helpful sites and, funnily enough, my successful breastfeeding with flat nipples was one of the reasons I decided to start my blog so I could share all the information I had found!

Kellymom is the best resource I’ve found on the web for all things breastfeeding related. With regards to my “issues” I’ve found their pages on oversupply, blocked ducts & mastitis and blebs to be full of helpful information.

With regard to nursing with flat nipples, I found good information on the “nipple sandwich” technique at Baby Art and more general information at La Leche League, Breastfeeding Essentials and Breastfeeding Basics (with pictures).

So that, in a rather large text-filled nutshell, is a quick and cheerful summary of some fairly painful moments in my breastfeeding career. But, you know, much like labour, the day after you clear a blocked duct or defeat a bleb, you start to forget how sore it was, isn’t Mother Nature crafty indeed?

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Have a read of some of the other wonderful carnival posts:

• Mama’s Magic
• Speech Act
• Tales of life with a girl on the go
• Nurturing notes
• Breastfeeding Mums
• Motherwear Breastfeeding Blog
• Blessed Nest Perch
• Hobo Mama
• Breastfeeding123

(More will be added throughout the day, so check back!)