Hi.. I am posting this for another LLL Leader who isn't on Lactnet.  She is looking for ways to help this mother, who has 2 concerns: how to keep her baby from weaning due to all the problems they have had, and how to cope with and more importantly PREVENT the plugged ducts / mastits from continuing.
The mom has an 11 month old baby currently nursing 4-5 times/day and a couple of times at night.  Baby started out sleepy & jaundiced, mom had difficulty with getting BF going,  and baby would often pull off screaming, then suck her fingers.  This continued for the 1st 6 months.  STILL sometimes pulls off choking & coughing.   Baby refuses to nurse when the least bit distracted, seems to love solid food and while she no longer screams and pulls away,  she does not seem to rely on BF for pleasure or comfort, either. Mom has been told that baby is now "conditioned" to experience BF as stressful.  She has tried all sorts of "incentives" to get baby to nuse longer / more often & make BF more pleasant for her.   Baby is consistently doing very short feeds at breast, doing all her comfort sucking w/ a pacifier (she seems to prefer it to the breast) and more frequent offers of the breast results in shorter feeds & more plugged ducts for mom. (Yes, we have all thought of oversupply/overactive MER).  
        Mom has had repeated, multiple, frequent plugged ducts and a few rounds of mastitis, and is getting physically & emotionally drained by all of it.  She has tried nursing a "couple of times" in a row on one side with no effect.   She works part-time & pumps often there,  and even at home she is often resorting to pumping to keep ducts clear (has been given conflicting advice about this) as baby will not nurse when distracted at all so on busy days the feeding schedule is erratic. When this occurs, or when baby sleeps through the night, mom ends up with plugged ducts again.  She is taking Lethicin (don't know the dose) and trying to drink lots of fluids, and is looking into ultrasound treatment as well with a physical therapist.  She has had a lot of LLL support & at least a couple of consults with an LC; at this point the LC keeps sending her to the MD, who keeps saying "no fever, not a medical issue, go ask the LC"... the mom is pretty frustrated and wondering if it is a "solveable" problem.
     I said that it does sound like at least partially an oversupply problem, and to try longer stretches (even up to 6 or 8 hours) at one-sided feeding, pumping just enough on the other side to avoid the plugged ducts.  I also said to give lots of praise to this mom for sticking with it for 11 months and wanting to do more, when she has really been in pretty frequent discomfort / pain the whole time.  I'm not sure what other advice has been given, but any help would be appreciated, especially focusing on preventing the plugs and helping baby learn to relax & enjoy BF.   THANKS!!!!!!!!  :->
Esther Friedman, LLLL, CLC, mom to Tyler

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