This has probably been discussed before, but if anyone could clue me in, I don't have time to search the archives right now. I am having a recurrent problem with doctors in town prescribing a 7 day course of antibiotics for mastitis. I got a call today from a woman, in tears, because the doctor told her "she would have to start weaning within the next 2 weeks, because she probably was going to have this problem again." It probably started at 10 days postpartum when she developed flu-like symptoms which were diagnosed as a virus. She had been told to start Ceclor in the middle of the night, so she continued to take it. 2 weeks ago had another fever, saw MD who finally looked at her breasts and decided that it was mastitis and put her on Ceclor. She has severe G.I. side effects to antibiotics and Ceclor is one that she can tolerate fairly well. She has taken Penicillin in the past, and developed diarrhea. She vomits with Keflex. Can't tolerate cipro, erythromycin, is allergic to sulfa drugs, macrobantin. Anyway, she started on 1500 mg/day of Ceclor and dropped this to 1000 mg/ day when her tongue started "pitting". She has been drinking acidophilus milk and eating a lot of cheese and hasn't developed diarrhea. She was on a 7 day course, felt better, nursed a lot on the left breast. Now her right breast is red and tender underneath her nipple. And she has a fever. So, doctor put her on ceclor again (1000 mg/day) for 11 -14 days this time, and told her that she really should start weaning, because it isn't worth her health, or something like that. She has always been prone to overproduction, has overactive let down. Baby started sleeping through the night. She nurses hourly in the evening, about every three hours during the morning and early afternoon. Baby is 11 weeks old. I guess my question is--with her history of intolerance to antibiotics, would it be worth trying another one? Does this sound like staph, and is dicloxicillin still considered the drug of choice for mastitis? If diarrhea is her main symptom, could she ward that off with acidophilus? And, last of all, if it is overproduction, will cabbage help? And when would be the best time to work on getting her production down? TIA Chris Lundberg Indianapolis