Judy,  unfortunately, I do not have an answer for you, but reading all these
posts reminded me of a client I worked with last year.  She had incredibly
large breasts and presented at 3 wks postpartum with her 2nd case of mastitis.
 She was not interested in putting baby to breast...I think she was
uncomfortable with the whole idea...but wanted her son to get her milk.
She pumped and bottlefed for 12 months.  During this time she had several
bouts of mastitis, probably 10 or 12.  What made me think of you was that
during these bouts she was pumping "clumps" of milk that had the consistency
of pudding and were between 2cm and 5 cm in diameter and yellowish in color.
She strained them out of the milk because baby couldn't suck them through the
nipple!  I often wondered what they were, but that was before my Lactnet days!
One thing that seemed to help her:  I suggested that she "knead" her breast
tissue thoroughly twice a day.  I have used this technique with great success
for mothers who have fibroid cysts in their breasts and are plagued
w/recurrent mastitis.  I tell them to imagine the breast is full of marbles
and their goal is to get each "marble" to move just a little, so that the
cysts are not sitting in the same place all the time.  The first mom I tried
it with presented at 6 weeks on her 4th bout with mastitis.  Her mother and
sister had also had to wean because of uncontrollable recurrent mastitis.  My
client went on to nurse her daughter for 17 months, and a 2nd baby for 24+
months (last I heard) but NEVER had another case of mastitis.  Her sister
tried it with her next child and also never had another case of mastitis.
At any rate, this technique did seem to help my client to pass the "clumps" of
thick milk, but I never did find out what they were, or what was causing them.
 I look forward to more postings shedding light on this subject.

Diane DiSandro, BA, IBCLC
Audubon, PA--LC in private practice****missing my daughter who is singing her
way across Europe for the next 3 weeks!****