hello,
i am an IBCLC in training. i am inspired to reply to this post because it could be me you 
are talking about.  this resistant oversupply with plugs and mastitis is what i have been 
dealing with for the past 11.5 months and i completely know your frustration.  

First of all i want to say that i had a C-section. My second. Both births were not positive 
experiences.....

i drank sage tea all day, ate altoids all day, ate bunches of raw parsley, full mechanical 
drainage in the morning and block feeding all day, etc. nothing worked. One Dr. had me 
taking 50mg of benedryll every night before bed for a week. then they gave me 60mg 
sudafed every 6 hours for a week. still my supply was huge, no change....except for the 
fact that i was now as dry as can be on a cellular level.  15 mastitis later - 7 treated with 
full 10 day courses of various antibiotics - and now a leaky gut....here is what i have 
learned.....

1. it's not about reducing the milk supply. it's about normalizing the mother's system.
what i did to reduce inflammation:  *****NUTRITION: eliminated dairy, gluten, soy, eggs 
and corn from my diet.  increased my Cod liver Oil intake (i use blue ice fermented cod 
liver oil - 6ml per day), added taurine, mammary PMG (standard process), Vit B6, 
Drenatrophin (standard process), Natural Calm powder (2x a day) and Castor Oil 
compresses.  (i saw a chiro/kinesiologist who muscle tested for allergies and diagnosed 
me with a klebsiella bacterial infection and inflammation in my pituitary gland - he 
prescribed homeopathic remedies which helped dramatically).

2. You do not need Antibiotics for plugs and mastitis.  Homeopathy is best here. For the 
right breast I use phytolacca when i feel the plug coming on and belladonna when i see 
the red streaks of a mastitis. for the left breast I use Lachesis mutus.  My last 8 mastitis 
were cured using homeopathy. the pain was less intense and the duration of the mastitis 
were much shorter than with antibiotics. Probiotics were used by me and my baby who 
has a bad gut as well (thanks to the abx).

3. Co-sleeping: My supply increased at night for some reason. having my son in bed with 
me to nurse on demand helped tremendously. 

4. Check for Tongue Tie: My son was checked at 9 months for TT (position 3 posterior 
diagnosed) and was clipped. we followed this up with craneo-sacral therapy for his jaw & 
milk transfer improved.

At almost 1 year nursing my supply is still huge but i consider it "under control."  My 
breasts are flaccid yet very full at all times.  my supply fluctuates with my diet and the 
amount of sleep i get - which is little since my son does not sleep through the night - 
which is probably a good thing since i need him to relieve me.  my let down is still 
noticable but not always painful.  thanks to Jennifer Tow, I have a much better 
understanding of my body and it's uniqueness when it comes to my supply. my 
relationship with my son has developed and grown with that understanding and the 
frustration has turned to meditation and new ways of seeing.  I remain challenged by my 
resistant oversupply but now i see that normalizing a system that is "damaged" takes 
time and is a process.  i can say with experience that there is no quick fix here.

Good Luck.
Em Duff, NYC





 

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