Fellow Lactnetters, I have been off the list for a couple months, but I need your collective wisdom dealing with a mom I have been working with. Her baby was 6 weeks old last Friday and she has had 7 breast infections (2 in left breast, 5 in right breast) since the birth of her daughter. I'm not even sure these can be called breast infections--I have not seen the mom, only talked to her over the phone. What she describes to me are areas 2-3" across or even larger that get hard and tender to the touch. She has seen the one "breast" doctor I know of in the area twice--yesterday being the last time. He says she has areas of her breast that become engorged and it would seem her supply should have evened out by now, but since it doesn't seemed to have done that "there are some women who can't breastfeed." What he recommended to the mom early on with this was massage of the area going toward the nipple, heat, nursing no longer than 5 minutes on a side then switch nursing, then back and forth. This has succeeded in letting the mom "get rid of the sore, hard area" in a 24 hour period--she hasn't been on antibiotics--but she's getting discouraged because the problem keeps coming back. The area of the breast involved changes each time. Baby is doing fine-- gaining, peeing, pooping, etc. Mom had an injury to the left breast years ago and probably isn't producing a lot of milk on that side. She is using both breasts at each feeding. She says she feels multiple let-downs while she is nursing, and feels let-down in the right side while nursing on the left, after having nursed on the right side to start with. She says she has been trying to watch her diet since before pregnancy, she is overweight (I don't know how much) so tries to minimize saturated fats, has maybe 1 drink a day with caffeine, doesn't eat chocolate. What do you think is going on? I'm really concerned she's going to develop some horrendous abscess with such large areas of breast involved. Doctor told her there was nothing wrong as far as infection was concerned. She's coming here late this afternoon to rent a pump to use after feedings. Will that help or hinder things? Any suggestions, etc. would be greatly appreciated. Please reply privately as I'm not back on the list yet. Thank you. Pat Bucknell Avon Lake, OH [log in to unmask]