Dear Brenda and all, This is a largely personal perspective, based on my five and one-half years (so far) of nursing experience with chronic, persistent and repeated plugged ducts; I have also helped moms as an LLLL and take their experiences into account. The 1997 edition of The Breastfeeding Answer Book had Ruth Lawrence's recommendation to use one tablespoon of lecithin per day (in addition to limiting fat intake). This was what I did, intermittently, and I found that I seemed to have fewer bouts of plugs when I was faithful about taking my lecithin. My diet was already low in fat and I didn't make changes in that area. I see that the new 2003 BAB (which, by the way, is a lovely revision!) has both the former recommendation by Dr. Lawrence as well as a higher total daily dose of 1 TBSP 3-4x/day as suggested in Jack Newman's book. I did find the single daily dose quite helpful, for what that's worth, and have known of two other mothers for whom 1 TBSP/day was also effective. So, n of 3. I would probably feel comfortable sharing both recommendations with a mom (along with reviewing the MANY other tips and techniques suggested for resolving this persistent, painful, discouraging problem); if she did not experience relief with the single dose, she could try it a few times a day instead. On a related note: In regards to the Australian news article that doubts the existence of plugged ducts, I feel quite certain that the author has neither personally nor professionally ever dealt with this phenomenon. Anyone who has suffered with significant mastitis issues knows that plugs (from stasis secondary to ineffective/inadequate milk removal, oversupply, or both) are present in many cases. Not only can they be palpated, but sometimes they can actually be expressed. I would agree that inflammation of the ducts might feel like a "plug" when in fact one is not present. However, as someone who has both expressed plugs and taken my fair share of calls from panicked mothers who found "little white strands" in their milk, I am confident that they are an actual physiologic entity. Anyone care to comment? Karen Pogge, MD, LLLL (and local expert on persistent plugged ducts) *********************************************** To temporarily stop your subscription: set lactnet nomail To start it again: set lactnet mail (or digest) To unsubscribe: unsubscribe lactnet All commands go to [log in to unmask] 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