What are the symptoms of mastitis during lactation?

Many women will face the problem of mastitis during breastfeeding. In the early stages, they will feel tingling in the nipples and milk congestion. If it is not effectively treated, it may lead to acute abscesses in the later stages.

1. Initial symptoms:

At the beginning, there are often nipple cracks, nipple tingling during breastfeeding, accompanied by milk stagnation or lumps, and sometimes one or two milk ducts are blocked. Then there is local swelling and pain in the breast, with or without lumps, accompanied by tenderness, the skin is not red or slightly red, and the skin is not hot or slightly hot. The systemic symptoms are not obvious, or are accompanied by chills and fever, chest tightness and headache, irritability, temper tantrum, and loss of appetite.

2. Symptoms of suppuration stage:

The purulent breast lump does not disappear or gradually increases in size, the local pain worsens, or there is throbbing pain, or even persistent severe pain, accompanied by obvious tenderness, red skin, burning skin, high fever, thirst, nausea and anorexia, and enlarged and tender ipsilateral axillary lymph nodes. Breast swelling, heat and pain

After about a day, the center of the breast lump gradually becomes soft, and there is a sense of fluctuation when pressed. The local area is diffusely swollen and hot, and there is obvious tenderness. Pus is aspirated during puncture, and sometimes the pus can flow out of the nipple. Systemic symptoms worsen.

3. Late ulcer symptoms:

When an acute abscess matures, it may burst and discharge pus on its own, or it may be drained by surgical incision. If the pus flows out smoothly, the local swelling and pain will decrease, the fever and chills will disappear, and the wound will gradually heal. If the pus does not drain smoothly after ulceration, the swelling does not go away, the pain does not decrease, and the fever does not subside, it may form a pus bag, or the pus may spread to other milk networks to form a hereditary mastitis. There are also cases where milk overflows from the sore after ulceration, and it cannot be cured for a long time, resulting in milk leakage.