Brenda -

I once had a client with very painful damaged nipples who pumped "blobby"
milk - like gelatinous "slugs".  She was gradually able to nurse on one side
but weaned from the other, which stopped hurting after weaning but which
still didn't look really healthy.

When her second child was born 2 years later, the pain and damage
immediately started all over again.  A milk culture showed Staph aureus and
several other organisms, and systemic antibiotics solved the problem.  Staph
aureus, it turns out, has coagulating properties that are well known to
dairymen; we just don't see the blobs often in humans, probably because we
catch mastitis earlier.

But what intrigued me was that her first, poorly treated infection seemed to
flare up again with her second child - as if it lingered at a subclinical
level for a couple of years!

I've since seen the same thing again - a woman who had continuously damaged
nipples with her first baby, for whom she pumped (and had damage) for 4
months (no LC help).  Now, with her second, it immediately started all over
again and she was pumping blobs.  I've encouraged her to get her milk
cultured and start on appropriate antibiotics; haven't heard back yet.

I know that infections can linger for years in other parts of the body; why
not in the breasts and nipples?
--
Diane Wiessinger, MS, IBCLC, LLLL  Ithaca, NY
www.wiessinger.baka.com

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