Hi Karen,

We had a mom a few months ago in the care of our agency with a similar
situation. I was not directly involved with her care but discussed it with
the nurse visiting her (our mom had a breast abscess drained). The mom
continued to breastfeed despite large amounts of milk coming through the
open site, but it healed up very quickly- the nurse found that the area
closed quite quickly, and figured this was due to all the healing and
anti-pathogenic substances in the milk. I think I asked about this on
lactnet at the time- you may want to check the archives for other responses.

Maureen Kennedy PHN IBCLC



At 08:05 AM 12/4/96 -0500, you wrote:
>Dear Lactnetters,
>
>I need info for a mom who is leaking copious amounts of breastmilk from her
>recent breast incision.
>
>Background info:  Has been breastfeeding her first baby without problems for
>two months,  mom decided to have a lump removed from her breast despite
>reassurances from her doctor it was benign. Surgeon removed a 2 inch long
>benign cyst through a one inch incision near the surface of the breast.
>Surgeon was careful not to disturb the milk ducts.
>
>Breastfeeding went well until  after her two week check when the site was
>examined by her doctor. The following day she started to leak from the corner
>of the incision. At this point she is leaking copious amounts of milk during
>each nursing session.  The surgeon advised her to wean.  Mom gave one bottle
>of formula, baby slept 6 hours straight, mom developed red area around
>incision, doctor ordered antibiotics. Mom is slowly weaning her baby.
>
>This mom has enjoyed nursing her baby for the past several months, she is
>returning to work in January. Any suggestions on how to help her would be
>appreciated.
>
>TIA!
>
>Karen Forsthoff BA, IBCLC, LLLL
>
>