Hello to all. As I promised, here is the update on the mother with bilateral mastitis. The surgeon/specialist said the ceftin is an ok drug for her problem. The culture came back with a "rare strain of strep and a rare strain of staph." according to the mother. I asked her to get a spelling of the strains as she did not read the report and immed. forgot them. Pedi found that baby had an infected fingernail, and immed. began antibiotics for baby on assumption baby had acquired same infection. Mother's breasts are finally fading back to normal color after 6 days. Specialist said this isn't unusual given severity of infection. No indication of inflammatory breast cancer. Baby has been off breast for 3 days, and can now be nursed again that everyone knows what is what. Baby is fussy and on semi-nursing strike. She has never been a good nurser, according to mom, who has had sore nipples for 6 weeks. Mon. I will do follow-up (I'm leaving town tomorrow to go on a church retreat to the beach....BLISS!!!) to help re-do positioning and prevent what can be prevented in terms of recurrence. In the meantime I have given verbal phone advice on nursing stike stuff. Barbara Barbara Wilson-Clay, BS, IBCLC Private Practice, Austin, Texas Owner, Lactnews On-Line Conference Page http://moontower.com/bwc/lactnews.html