Dear wise ones I am supporting a mother by email since last Wednesday, and have permission to post. Her baby is 10 weeks. The mom has been suffering severe bilateral nipple and breast pain for 6 weeks and was treating for Thrush, including a 10 day course of Fluconazole. The pain persisted in spite of the Fluconazole which is when she contacted me. I described nipple/breast? thrush and suggested that if the pain hadn't resolved in all this time, then she should contact her doctor and request a nipple swab and milk culture. She did. Last Friday the milk culture came back positive for S Aureus and the doctor immediately prescribed flucloxacillin. Over the weekend the pain lessened a bit and mother was feeling relieved. Today her doctor contacted her again to let her know she has MRSA of the nipples. He is prescribing topical mupirocin. The baby has been examined and is asymptomatic. The doctor has contacted a microbiologist to confer, but everyone seems uncertain about whether continuing to breastfeed is safe for the baby. And the mother is about ready to wean, being concerned for her baby and wondering whether continuing to breastfeed is worth it. Her baby has been receiving 1-2 bottles/24 hours for the last week or so. A search of the Lactnet archives doesn't throw up a lot, but it seems that continuing to breastfeed might be safer for the baby than weaning at this point. And for the mother, in order to avoid continued/worsening of the breast infection and possible abscess. In your opinions, is this correct? If the mother stops breastfeeding, she wonders if it is safe for the baby to have her expressed milk? I wonder whether it would be safer for her to pasteurize it (to inactivate any infectious organisms) or whether it would be safer for the baby to have the full complement of antibiodies to the MRSA that she is surely producing after all these weeks?? Any help and information would be very, very gratefully received, including usual antibiotics for MRSA (is flucloxacillin sufficient to treat this?) Thanks so much! Pamela Morrison IBCLC Rustington, England *********************************************** Archives: http://community.lsoft.com/archives/LACTNET.html To reach list owners: [log in to unmask] Mail all list management commands to: [log in to unmask] COMMANDS: 1. To temporarily stop your subscription write in the body of an email: set lactnet nomail 2. To start it again: set lactnet mail 3. To unsubscribe: unsubscribe lactnet 4. To get a comprehensive list of rules and directions: get lactnet welcome