>baby is 6 weeks old and mom is reporting she has her 5th breast infection. tell me this isn't possible and we are talking misuse of language. breast infection really means plugged duct.< OK Monique, we are talking misuse of language. So often 'mastitis' is just assumed to be an infection but there has really been no work to establish what proportion of mastitis is infectious and what proportion is 'obstructive' (this terminology is used by Renfrew, Woolridge and Ross McGill in Enabling Women to Breastfeed (2000) The Stationary Office, London). I think there is a debate to be had whether the terminology 'plugged duct' or 'blocked duct' is not also misleading. I think plugs/blocks are one way that obstructive mastitis presents, but not the only way. (I recently realised that I stopped talking about them about 10 years ago). Renfrew et al have this list: Some areas for further research * There is a need to determine both the incidence of mastitis in this country (UK) and its prevalence at different stages of lactation. * Development of a simple differential diagnostic test to discriminate ‘infective’ mastitis from obstructive (‘non-infective’) mastitis in routine clinical practice. * Would the routine use of leucocyte and bacterial counts for women with mastitis be cost-effective as part of a treatment protocol? * Are there other factors which cause mastitis – e.g. illness, stress, exhaustion and blocked ducts are associated with its occurrence. * Nipple trauma is a possible predisposing factor. What are the mechanisms which might cause this and could this be prevented? Reading their review of the literature (which is what 'Enabling' was commissioned to be by the UK Dept of Health) combined with the WHO publication on Mastitis (also 2000) shows us just how little studied mastitis really is and how wide ranging and diverse the understandings and treatments of it are in practice. Magda Sachs Breastfeeding Supporter] BfN btw, I disclaim all pretense of being any kind of expert on mastitis -- I just know that from a solid look at the literature and careful thought about what I have learned from women over the years that these conditions are not as 'cut and dried' (if you'll pardon the image) as they are usually presented in the literature. *********************************************** The LACTNET mailing list is powered by L-Soft's renowned LISTSERV(R) list management software together with L-Soft's LSMTP(TM) mailer for lightning fast mail delivery. For more information, go to: http://www.lsoft.com/LISTSERV-powered.html