Suspected Breastfeeding Mastitis

If you have read about my earlier post about the chills and feverish feeling I was having for the past few days. The following day I got the worst food poisoning (I think)  episode where I can’t eat anything at all as everything I swallow will cause my stomach to contract in pain. The worst part was I was purging for almost the whole day!

My suspicious was, I could be suffering from breastfeeding Mastitis.

I’ve never have this condition before during my time with Darrius as Darrius was a very punctual baby… meaning that, he will wake up for his milk without fail every 2 to 2.5 hours interval. It is very different with Glennedine. She was very consistent for the first few weeks when I was still in confinement but after we returned to Penang, the timing seemed to have gone topsy-turvy. Probably due to the many disturbance in the day where I have chores to do and those noise from outside which disturbed her rest. Sometimes she can sleep for as long as 4-5 hours without waking up for milk.

All the irregularities have somehow caused confusion to my milk ducts. This is of course worrying since I am only into my 7th week of breastfeeding. Milk production dropped tremendously for 2 days. When normally I get soaking wet breast pads, now I am getting very dry and clean breast pads even after 24 hours! My worst fear came true… no engorgement at all! Definitely not a very good sign!

Since I can’t eat much on Friday there was really not much milk to feed Glennedine. The poor girl was so unsatisfied even though I kept letting her suckle every 1 hour. Luckily I was feeling much better yesterday so I chomped down as much food as my tummy can take and drank lots of liquid to boost milk production.

Hopefully I can slowly establish a more regular feeding routine for her so nothing like this will ever happen again… I can’t afford to let her go on formula before she turns 1!

And oh! That reminds me to go get some free insurance quotes for Glennedine.

Related posts:

1. World Breastfeeding Week (1-7 August)
2. World Breastfeeding Week 2007
3. Study: Breastfeeding makes kids smarter
4. World Breastfeeding Week
5. He’s feeling better now