I'd like to add my 2mls into the cold vs heat treatment in breastfeeding care.
The only reason I consider cold is if the mothr specifically asks for it and
only continue if she is really comfortable with it. In my experience
engorgement, plugs and mastitis heal better with warm applications, note: *not*
heat. Warmth is relaxing for the mother and for her whole system, makes fluids
flow easier and helps the body fight whatever it is fighting. Inflammation is
not a disease, it is a tool of the body to fight a disease. (personally and in
my family I also never apply cold to infections, but keep them (moist and) warm
and use calendula and hypericum C30 to help the body fight the infection, which
can both be used to support the body in fighting mastitis as well).
I think most cases of mastitis are in fact insufficiently treated plugged ducts
and should be treated with rest, frequent feeding/pumping and warmth (as should
have been done with the plug in the first place) *plus* elimination of the
primairy cause of the plugged duct.
I also think that if ''nature'' tells us that warmth is the way to treat certain
conditions, we should not interfere by removing the warmth and replace it by the
opposite. Cold will only reduce the symptons (swelling, pain), but does not
speed up healing. If the body is over-reacting and thus overheating, the extra
heat can gently be released by using for example fresh-cheese compresses, which
is definitely different from cooling.
I'm glad this theme was brought up, as it is one of my favorites (as you'll have
noticed by now). And I agree that the word mastitis or ''breast-infection'' as
it is called in Dutch is misleading, in that it makes people (both lay and
hcp's) that it must have to do with germs, thus overlooking the most common
cause (plugged ducts). Just don'tknow how to re-phrase it.
Gonneke van Veldhuizen, IBCLC, living in Maaseik, Belgium
http://www.users.skynet.be/eurolac
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