TMI: Clogged Milk Ducts ... Again

As I go through motherhood, I find that I come across experiences that are interesting to me that I would like to discuss, but at the same time they may be too much for some people. I know I appreciate hearing and learning from the expereinces of other moms, especially the ones no one talks about. But I also understand some people just come to read my blog to catch up on the Mila, not to read about clogged milke ducts, haha! So, I'm going to label these posts as "TMI" as in, "too much information." Stop reading now if you're not interested in learning more about motherhood than you want to know. Ok, you've been warned!


For the last few weeks, I've been having a huge problem with clogged milk ducts. It's been AWFUL! I'm getting clogged what seems like every other day! Once, I even clogged up on the right one and I was so focused on putting Mila on that side, that the other one got engorged and clogged up too!!! It was terrible! It took days for it to get better. Ugh.

I think it was all the pumping that I was doing that caused it. Since I was still waiting to work things out with my job, and I thought maybe I'd have to go into the office a day or two, I was pumping like crazy so I could build up a freezer stash. I was really worried that I wouldn't be able to pump enough during the day, since like I mentioned in my previous post about our nighttime routine where we give her a bottle of pumped milk before bed, she downs a WHOPPING 7 oz! (I've read 3-4 oz is the norm! EEEEk! She'll cry and cry if we give her any less. I asked the pediatrician about it and he says however much she wants to eat she should get. I asked at the La Leche League meeting and they said she might be crying because she wants to nurse not just for food, but for comfort and to bond with me. So many opinions!) In any case, I had been pumping a lot during the night and I'd get as much as 12 extra ounces that I could freeze. But now that I'm not going back to work, I've cut back on pumping. But it seems like my boobs are adjusting and they still think I need that extra 12 ounces! The way breastfeeding works is where there is demand, supply is created. So the more Mila nurses or I pump, the more milk I make. If Mila starts eating less, I'll make less milk, but it takes time for my supply to adjust. Since the demand has gone down drastically, I'm dealing with the oversupply and I'm clogging up because Mila's not emptying out the breast. And let me tell you: it sucks.

The only solution to a clogged duct is to keep putting the baby on the breast. The pump won't be as efficient at unclogging as a baby is. (A baby's suck is much stronger.) And these clogs aren't like the last one I blogged about, where I had a milk blister that I could see. These clogs have been internal and I just have to massage it out. But not massage in a good way -- when the lactation consultant showed me how to massage it out I felt like she was going to rip off my boob, she did it so freaking hard!!!

Because of the clogging, I've pretty much stopped pumping and we no longer give Mila a pumped bottle of milk before bed. I nurse her as often as I can. It kinda sucks because I liked that Jorge would feed her before bed so I could get some time to myself, even if it was just an hour, but the clogged ducts are so much worse. Now I've got all this frozen milk in the freezer. I've read that breastmilk can last 3-4 months in there. I hope we use it at some point though, I'd hate to throw all of that away! I remember when Mila was first born that we had all that trouble breastfeeding and I was pumping every meal for her. I could barely get out 2 ounces! Anything I could pump was like liquid gold!! Now I have all of this milk and I'd hate for it to go to waste.

Needless to say, breastfeeding is definitely challenging. My last clog was last night but it cleared up by the time I went to bed. I'm hoping my supply adjusts quickly and this will just be one more obstacle we've overcome.

TMI: Clogged Milk Duct

As I go through motherhood, I find that I come across experiences that are interesting to me that I would like to discuss, but at the same time they may be too much for some people. I know I appreciate hearing and learning from the expereinces of other moms, especially the ones no one talks about. But I also understand some people just come to read my blog to catch up on the Mila, not to read about clogged milke ducts, haha! So, I'm going to label these posts as "TMI" as in, "too much information." Stop reading now if you're not interested in learning more about motherhood than you want to know. Ok, you've been warned!

Today's topic is clogged milk ducts. What's that, you ask?? I had no idea until yesterday. Last night, my left breast was ridiculously engorged. I thought I must have missed a side with Mila during her feedings. Maybe I put her on the right boob twice instead of alternating between them, which is what you're supposed to do. I loose track of which one I'm on all the time. So I figured I'd use the pump to release some of the engorgement. I pumped for 10 minutes, and where normally I would have expected 2-3 oz, I only got 1 oz. Not only that, but I still felt engorged and it was starting to get painful. For those of you who've never felt this, the closest thing I can imagine an engorged boob feeling like is an extremely full bladder and not being able to pee. Like it's about to pop. It was sore and tender. I'd felt this before, but I thought perhaps I was increasing my supply or something? So I put Mila on the engorged boob. She latched on like she usually does, but after a few minutes, she started crying and pulling off. I'd then put her back on, but then she'd cry and keep pulling off... At first I thought she had a burp, as she does that sometimes when she has one building up. But I burped her and nothing, she just kept crying as if saying, "I'm still hungry, put me back on the boob!" But when I did, she would continue the crying and pulling off. "Is nothing coming out?" I wondered. She would normally be chugging, especially since I know there's a ton of milk in there! She did seem to get some out, as some of the pressure had subsided a little bit, but I still felt engorged. The top half of my boob felt hard to the touch and I can feel the full milk ducts underneath, but the bottom half felt fine.

So I put her on the other boob to finish nursing and I figured it would just go away on it's own. I'd felt this a couple times before and it just eventually went away. She finished nursing on the right boob and I waited. I was distracted by the tv for a while, but about an hour later I was feeling worse. I was soooo full! It was getting closer to bedtime and I couldn't imagine falling asleep with all this pain! I tried pumping again, this time using a hot compress and trying to massage it out and still got hardly anything. It almost seemed like the milk was stuck in there. I went to the bathroom and to take a look, not that I expected to see anything... but to my surprise, found a little white dot on my nipple. What could that be??? I swabbed it with a Qtip and nothing. I had read breastfeeding manual "The Womanly Art of Breastfeeding" cover to cover and I remember reading about mastitis, a terrible, extrememly painful infection in the breast caused by a plugged duct. Symptoms include soreness, fever and flu-like symptoms. I cringed at the thought this could be mastitis!

I jumped online and googled "engorged breast and white dot on nipple" and got a ton of responses, all of them referring to a clogged milk duct. After a bit of reading at AskDrSears.com, I realized it was a plugged duct, not mastitis -- at least not yet. Seemed like the white spot was a small milk blister and that if I used a needle as directed on kellymom.com, I could relieve it. Needless to say, I was not keen on the thought of putting a needle anywhere near my sore breast, but honestly, at this point it was hurting so much I was practically in tears. I figured I needed to do try anything!

I sterilized it in alcohol and I gently ran the side of the needle (not the tip) on the affected area and immediately milk came out! Seemed like the blockage was right there. I was so relieved! I then swabbed it with a Qtip and then went back to the pump and it worked! What a relief! It was such an easy fix and I felt soooo much better. I had felt this before in the past and I'd always just dealt with it until it went away on its own, usually after a nursing. Now I know what to do.

It must have been caused by nursing Mila on the same side consecutively. She had also taken a long nap in between, so that also extended the time I had last nursed on that side. Don't let this happen to you!

Another technique you can try is mentioned here in this hilarious post about clogged milk ducts. Despite the pain, it really made me laugh.