Dear Becky,

One thing that struck me about the mother with the plugged ducts was that you
said that she was nursing every 3 hours at night and going up to 6 hours
during the day.  Toddlers can have very erratic nursing patterns and I have
known this to be the cause of recurrent mastitis.  If the toddler is a
"binge" nurser, nursing every half hour one day, then going six hours the
next, I could imagine this might cause problems.  Another thing worth
considering is the mother's overall stress level.  Maybe there are things
going on in her life which she has not mentioned because they don't appear
relevant to her.

Keep us posted.
Lesley Robinson, IBCLC, LLL Leader
Corning, NY