Help! Engorgement suddenly!

msck

Member
Dear all mummies, HELP!!

my bb is 10 week old and i have been bf her and pumping milk out regularly. But i dunno why- the upper part of one of my 'best friends' became hard like a rock since last night! i experienced engorgement before in the first week afteri gave birth. but now routine establish, why do i have engorged boob?!

The engorged part is sore and painful, i tried to continue bf my bb, cabbage (12noon-2pm, 3pm till now (4pm), massage, hot towel. all cannot. =( and it's very odd, cos it's the entire half of the boob very hard!! i can even feel the pain when i lift my hand higher!

Any mummies experience this before? PLEASE HELP!! =(
 
Oh dear, sounds like blocked ducts.i had tat for when I bf my elder son. Wat u hv been doing are right. Hot compress, continue to bf( if possible, let your baby position such tat the nose is pointing towards the hard side) , try pumping as well n keep pressing the area. Cabbage will work quite well to reduce the hardness but b prep that your supple may drop alot after this.

Monitor your temp. If u hv fever, pop in panadol plain or see doc. Cos it will hv been dev into mastitis. I did a silly thing also. I went on all fours n ask hubby to milk the breast. The gravity supposed to help clear too. Else lie on your side n keep pressing it out.

Blocjed ducts usu happens to pple with oversupply cos u produce more than u can drain out so I think u just hv to try to relief it as much as possible.

If all fails, can get a Malay massage lady to help u clear. If wan, I can rec u one. She quite good. Hang in there!!
 

lyra

Member
It's blocked duct. You see a white spot on ur nipple? I went crazy when I had my first blocked duct too! Haha. It was painful! I used hot shower spray and massage on the affected breast, and let baby suck and suck while I bear with the pain when he suck. Just bear with it and after he sucked out the blocked duct, it'll be fine. It takes some time to drain out the milk and for the pain to go away though. Blocked duct is not a big problem. Its only a big problem if it developed into mastitis. Since u have oversupply, don't pump excessively as this will increase demand and ur brain will up ur milk supply and the cycle continues. Just focus on latching. I know its a huge relieve to just pump out the milk to take the burden off your full breasts, and I often was tempted to do that. But the moment I cut down on pumping and latch on exclusively, the engorgement problem gets better.
 

msck

Member
Thank god!!!!!!

Rachelleling n lyna! It's cleared! Yay!! After keep feeding with the same boob, hot towel massage, hot water shower, cabbage for 4+ hours, massage (squeezing, pushing, rubbing n even hitting) and much praying, finally cleared! Yay!!

N ladies, if i dun empty my 'best frens', wont i have blocked ducts often?! I tried to pump out a lil before feed n i only pump 4-5hours once, is it ok? And usually i feed my bb on a breasts at one setting, so i will pump 1/2 or 3/4 of the unfed breasts, like leave abit, so my bb can feed more in the coming feed. Like tt also diao blocked ducts... Sian...
 
so lucky for you. When i saw your post stating the pain when u lift your hand, was quite worrying how long will it take. Normally block duct will develop fever right ? Lucky u
 
Indeed you r lucky. when I cant lift up my hands the other time, i knew i was in big trouble! haha. i think cos you keep emptying your boobs (as in not necessarily fully empty, but 1/2 or 3/4 empty also considered empty) that's why your body kept producing a lot. I am trying to manage my supply by doing this. I also only feed one boob per feed and then only squeeze the other boob only if it becomes hard or painful. so, then, my body will get the signal that i m producing too much.

but then if you want to start storing some milk, you can continue with what you r doing but must be consistent in it so that your body will not overproduce.

sometimes if engorgement happens suddenly, could be due to the food that you ate. like tat time, I took cheese. suddenly my boob became rock hard. got to monitor ytoyr diet too
 

msck

Member
Diet eh... I forgot wat i ate tt day!!!! Crap. Dunno wat cause the sudden engorgement. Crapx2.

And yes! I was so worried tt i really wanted to cry. Somemore i read some mommies have sudden breast infection, got to go for surgery then pop painkillers etc- end of breastfeeding career. Was so worried. Somemore my arm couldn't lift up cos the engorged area was so big!!!!

I think i shall use hot towel to clean my breasts once a day... So scared!!
 

Alisa

Active Member
actually u should be bless that u have over supply! cuz some mummies don even manage to bf their babies.
 
Sigh..no milk got prob, too much milk also got prob! but the prob related to more milk is slightly a better prob la.

Ya, MSCK, u suddenly made me scared also. i better take care and not get blocked ducts too!!
 

msck

Member
Yes Alisa, i feel quite blessed. So the more cannot take for granted!!!! Rachelleling, i am going to protect my 'best friends' well from now!!

Btw, i think my supply really reduced by half on that affected boob... Cos i used cabbage! Now worry one big one small... Sian..
 
hahaha, ya, the boobs are our bestest frens!

supply will definitely drop if you use cabbage. but if you do what you have been doing, think the supply will return back to normal in no time! just dun overstimulate it and cause even more supply!
 

lyra

Member
Msck, bcoz if u keep pumping n emptying, u'll allow ur brain to believe u need more milk then u really do. Maybe u can pump just a bit to relieve n not empty all. If u don't empty all, ur brain believes u don't need this much, n the next round it tells ur body to produce milk, ur breast will not produce as much. That happened for me n my fren but for my fren, it's not such a happy thing coz she had low supply. I bf my baby for one yr plus le n since he's 6 months, I never had blocked duct. So don't worry, the supply will stabilize.
 

lyra

Member
Btw, I never use cabbage bcoz I was afraid my supply will drop too much n I'll not produce enough for baby. I heard cabbage is really effective.
 

Laura

New Member
U can try the breast massage for this kind of engorgement, Ms. Nancy@9813678

I had her service after I deliver, the same problem of engorgement, quite effective for me.
 

msck

Member
Sigh. Had engorgement again. N this time i even had fever n shivers.

After a night of sleeping in sauna state n regular pumping n squeezing, finally cleared it. Now i have huge bruises on my breast. =(

Btw anyone heard of lecinthin? Heard it help also eh?
 
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