How to Prevent and Treat Mastitis

Keep breastfeeding

Even with mastitis, your milk is not harmful to the baby, and it will help you recover more quickly if you continue breastfeeding.

Occasionally a baby won’t like the slight change in taste of the milk on the affected side. If that’s your baby, keep breastfeeding on the unaffected breast and pump the breast with mastitis, using heat and massage and hand expression to keep the milk flowing.

(If you're pumping, you may see some of the thickened milk come through, or you may see small amounts of pus or blood in the milk. These are not harmful to the baby.) You may need to supplement temporarily.

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