Dear Chris,

I'm a LLL Leader, and I'm sure more technically knowledgeable people
will jump in, but one thing that caught my eye is your mentioning the
doctors giving
7 day courses of antibiotics.  The New Breastfeeding Answer Book
says about mastitis, "the mother is likely to suffer a recurrence if she does
not take antibiotics for at least ten days".
It also says that rarely a baby may be carrying an infection in his mouth
that is reinfecting the mother after she finishes the medication.
The book suggests encouraging the mother to ask her doctor to culture
the baby's throat to see if this is happening.

And for what its worth, I took Dicloxicillin for mastitis
in August 1995.

Jane Khondker
LLL
Potsdam NY