Hi all:
Received a call today on our BF warmline from a mother of a 9 month old who
would like to wean from the breast pump. (She gave me permission to post her
situation in order to obtain more info for her, so I'm bcc'ing colleagues at
work and Lactnet all at once.) Initially, she was BF but said her baby "got
used to the bottle" and wouldn't latch after her second bout of mastitis.
She's had mastitis 4 times in all. She was pumping 5 times per 24 hours and
obtaining 50 oz (about 1500 ml) and has it down to 4 pumping sessions in 24
hours -- still obtaining 10 oz (300 ml) per session for 40 oz (about 1200
ml) per 24 hours.

When she cuts back from there by pumping for fewer minutes, she becomes very
engorged -- tight and with initial signs of plugged ducts. As you can
imagine, she's concerned about another recurrence of mastitis. Her physician
suggested she simply stop "cold turkey," a strategy that does not appeal to
her (or me). She has or is using cold compresses, cabbage leaves, and sage.
She's tried a pseudoephedrine product and had a paradoxical behavioral
effect. She's considering calling her MD to discuss an estrogenic
contraceptive, although in the past she developed severe nausea when on one
brand. (We did discuss going over with a physician re: different dosage,
brand, etc.) We discussed peppermint - and she's aware of anti-galactogogue
info on kellymom.com.


We've talked a bit about and I'm forwarding the link to her of van
Veldhuizen-Staas's report in International Breastfeeding Journal re:
*Overabundant
milk supply*...
http://www.internationalbreastfeedingjournal.com/content/2/1/11 and she's
interested in trying that intervention. As part of that we talked about
possibly more frequent pumping sessions if needed related to engorgement,
but pumping just to the point of MER and then turn off the machine and let
that milk spray/run into the bottles -- possibly repeating to MER once if
still needed vs. pumping with more vacuum for a longer period (although
still less time than in the past).

Anyone with other ideas? Thanks for any ideas.

-- 
Karen Gromada
www.karengromada.com/

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