Breast Abcess:  Denise my heart practically stopped when I heard the mom
with the abcess was weaning.  I have had the misfortune to see the results
of weaning in similar situations.  I  am sure this mother has NO idea of
what she may be getting into, sigh. I can imagine your private response when
she said she is planning on relactating later.  That is one consult I would
dread.  I have an acquantance (actually the mother of a member of a ball
team my son played with several years ago) who spent several hours -- at a
series of ball games -- telling me about her 12 year (you read that right
-year-) fight with a breast infection.  She was in an isolated community,
developed a breast infection, not a severe one, and was ordered to wean
which she did.  The infection bloomed into an abcess, and must have spread
throught the breast tissue.  She was able to get on top of it with
antibiotics but experienced pain and occasional flare ups for 12 years
despite surgery.  It finally cleared up when she underwent a final surgery
at the province's specialty breast treatment clinic.  Somehow I don't think
the physician who recommended weaning has any idea of the repercussions of
his/her advice.

FTT in child #7.  I have been reading this thread with interest.  Please do
not overlook the obvious simply because the mother is experienced.  Mothers
of many children are not LCs, they have experienced several infants, not
dozens or hundreds. This child may be different from the siblings. It is
necessary to see a breastfeeding. In the situation described I would wonder
about a mother with a copious milk supply initially and an infant who is not
suckling effectively.  The mother is no longer getting enough milk removal
to maintain milk supply, infant spends lots of ineffective time at the
breast.  In 3 cases that come to mind the mothers thought the infant was
feeding effectively just often and more gently than their previous infants.
Basically it often pays to go back to the fundamentals. As one mother said
-- you have to realize I haven't nursed a young infant in 3 years, maybe my
memory is faulty. The same mom pointed out that with 6 children she didn't
have a lot of time to spend analysing the behaviour of the latest.  She just
put it to the breast and assumed it was feeding well.  Further there was
little followup by the physicians and nurses as it was assumed by everyone
that all would be well.  She did indeed recognize there was a problem but
not until it was well developed.