I had multiple rounds of mastitis with both of my babies. I wish I could blame it on my large breasts, but that is definitely not the problem!
After my son’s birth, the mastitis was so bad, that I was put on 3 different rounds of antibiotics. They finally ended up doing a sample of the infection and found that I had somehow contracted staph (most likely from the hospital). Anyway, the antibiotics were not clearing it up, but when my Mom mentioned it to her naturopath, she recommended potatoes.
Yes, potatoes draw out infection. She told me that 4-5 times a day (or as many times as I could handle) I should shred a potato (fresh shreddings work best), put a good-sized handful on a washcloth, put it over my nipple and apply a heat pack on top for 20 minutes.
I was a little wary about the amount of work that the remedy would require, especially since I was already nursing around 145,607 times a day, but I decided to give it a go.
Right after my day-time nursings, I would shred the potato and apply it with a heat pack. It was hard to be still for 20 minutes after I had nursed since I still had to attend to my newborn, so I used an ACE wrap (the beige kind that athletes use for injuries) and wrapped it around my whole torso a few times so that the potato/heat pack stayed on my breast.
I probably did the treatment for about a week and after that the infection was gone! Potatoes had done what antibiotics could not!
After that, whenever I felt a clogged milk duct, I would apply the shredded potato and heat to keep it from backing up and getting infected.
This is a life-saver if you are prone to mastitis like I was or even if you just get it once. Potatoes work!
*This is not intended to be medical advice, just my own experience. Please talk to your doctor if you have a health concern.
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