closed milk ducts?

[mulani]

closed milk ducts?

Hi - I have a question that has been bothering me. For some reason with my son - he´s my second and is now 7 months old - i suffered through quite a few infections in my breasts which i treated successfully with cabbage, heat and nursing - no antibiotics. It seemed that any time my breast was engorged it would get infected. what has happened as a result is that one of my breasts supplies 75% of the milk supply. i see this when i pump - 50cc versus 200/250cc and feel it when my son is nursing. is it possible that my ducts have closed on one side? is it possible to remedy the situation? i have tried nursing beginning on the weak side and leaving him on for long stretches with no change in the situation. thank you for any assistance you may be able to provide.

 

[אסתר גרוניס IBCLC]

breast infections

First you have to ask yourself why you had so many infections in that breast. Are you sleeping in a bra? Are you putting your finger on the breast to free the baby´s nose? are you wearing a bra that is too tight and presses on that area? Is your baby just not draining the breast correctly? The decrease in milk supply could be due to improper healing of the infections. The question is how bad were these infections? Did you have fever of more that 38.5 for longer than 24 hours? There may be still some infection encapsulated in a certain area of the breast. IN that case you won´t feel pain, or have fever because the blood supply is cit off from the infected area. In this case, an ultrasound of the breast is in order. I would not worry too much about the milk supply. A baby can get enough milk from the one breast if she feeds frequently.​

 

[mulani]

infections

I don´t wear a bra at night and often don´t wear one during the day - when i´m at home. I do press my finger on the nipple opposite the side being nursed to prevent spraying. the infections were not accompanied by fever but rather by extreme pain of the breast and redness. If an ultrasound shows some infection would antibiotics clear this up and restore the milk supply to that breast or is this what i´m left with? My baby is growing fine so i´m not worried about lack of milk but it´s easier to have two sides supplying good amounts - especially when i need to pump milk. thanks for your quick response.

 

[אסתר גרוניס IBCLC]

Is there a red area in the breast?

If you are getting plugged ducts in the same place all the time, then you should have it ultrasounded just to check that there is not any scar tissue which may be blocking that area.​