# I Kicked my Mastitis!



## OMama (Feb 18, 2005)

Just wanted to celebrate a bit . . . Nursed DD for two years and never got mastitis, but did deal with many painful plugged ducts. DS was born in October and when he was just 10 days old I came down with mastitis. Man, did it suck! Didn't realize how horrible it really was! Anyway, I tried fighting it off "naturally" but then resorted to antibiotics because I was so sick and not getting better and I had a newborn and a 2.5YO to take care of.

I came down with it again on Monday night but this time I was prepared. Same bad symptoms, but somehow I kicked it's butt this time!







I took phytolacca (30 cc that I had on hand for just this purpose), drank lots of Emergen-C (for the mega doses of vitamin C) and water, did hot water bottle compresses and hot showers, massaged my breasted, got in bed, and nursed a lot. But I think what really saved me was eating TONS of raw garlic. I read that it is a natural antibiotic. I ate a total of about 10 cloves in one day. I just chopped it up and chased it with some of the Emergen-C.

If it happens again I plan to use the same approach. I am just so glad that I know that my body can fight it off at least sometimes. Any other success stories out there on fighting it off with out antibiotics? I wasn't sure if it would work for me, but it did!


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## logan&jordansmommy (Sep 5, 2004)

That's great! I am glad you fought it off!
I am not 100% sure but I think I had a mild case of mastitis twice and I didn't have to take antibiotics luckily. I had the very painful breast, fever etc so I think that was it but right at the first sign I started taking things. I took echinachea, lots of vit c and garlicd. I also got in the shower and let the warm water hit it and hand expressed some. Plus I had ds nurse a lot and I pumped when he was done to make sure I got some more of the milk out. And luckily I got a good nap in too.
Glad you are feeling better!


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## gabysmom617 (Nov 26, 2005)

YES! raw garlic!









I've had recurrent mastitis a lot, it usually lasts a week before it goes away. Last time I did the raw garlic, and it was gone in 2 days!!!


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## josybear (Jul 24, 2006)

i got mastitis every month or so for ds's first year. i got beating it down to a science.
when you feel it coming on, start eating raw garlic as much as you can bear. a clove chopped into 3 or 4 pieces and swallowed like pills every few hours really, really works. once i figure it out i never got beyond the achyness at the beginning of the mastitis, the garlic worked so well.
i did smell bad, though.







it's a small price to pay.


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## ambotchka (Jun 24, 2006)

I've had it three times and the first two times I was on antibiotics. I don't know, but the second time was so bad and my fever kept getting higher and higher, I was actually glad to take the antibiotics (my fever went down about 1/2 day after I started taking them). The third time, though, I didn't want to do the pills, so I stayed in bed and rested, and it went away after about four days.

So garlic, eh? How exactly does the garlic work? I'm all for it and will try that next time - although I hope there isn't a next time!

~ Amber


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## napua (Feb 1, 2006)

I had mastitis last weekend and it was awful! I managed to get through it w/o antibiotics though. It began with an ache in my left breast on Thursday and then by that night I had a fever and horrible chills. My whole body started hurting, just like I had the flu. I took tylenol to deal with the fever, took hot showers and used hot compresses on my breast, massaged it a lot and nursed as much as I possibly could! By Sunday I felt perfectly fine.









As for the garlic...it is awesome for a fever too. Take 4-5 cloves a day. Just cut them up and swallow with orange juice to cover the taste.

I hate the idea of taking antibiotics. I certainly don't want thrush after dealing with mastitis.


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## MomTo3Blessings (Jan 20, 2006)

so the garlic doesnt bother baby? I had mastitis recently and beat it with just high doses of Vit C but I was scared to take so much garlic and end up with her refusing to nurse? Garlic breastmilk cant taste good


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## CrunchyCate (Jul 9, 2005)

I've beaten it with raw garlic, too...that and nursing the heck out of the boob in question. I'm glad to read I'm not the only one who doesn't get antibiotics for it!


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## logan&jordansmommy (Sep 5, 2004)

My mw said the garlic will make your bm sweeter. Which will make baby want to nurse more which will help. Not sure if that is true but that is what I was told.


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