I woke up early this morning with an all too-familiar feeling in my, ah hem, chest (I much prefer that word to the "br..." or "bo..." words, esp in writing). I was not only engorged, but really really sore on one side, the same kind of sore I woke up with several months ago where 10 hours after waking up in pain ("hm, must have slept funny") I was balling on the phone to my parents and then Dr's office begging for drugs to treat mastitis.
I spent my shower painfully trying to push out the hard bumps, hey, if it prevents me from getting to that feverish state with red streaks again, I'll keep keep up the painful rubbing. It's not nearly at the same level of pain that I was in at this point in the day last time, so that's hopeful, but I need to do something about it, so I took some IB Profin and then remembered the cabbage bit.
Cabbage can do many things besides just give you gas. It's said you can lose like a 100 pounds in a week by eating cabbage soup, if cut in half it makes a great stamp dipped in paint, but can it really relieve a suffering woman from engorgement? The cabbage factor, you know, one of those things women say works but scientists can't figure out why. We rarely have cabbage on hand, but we happen to right now, so I stuffed my bra full of it (sounds a little pre-teen stuffing my bra and all).
Josh has been gone in CA for the past few days so he surprised me and came home to eat lunch with me today (and since I had a stressful experience at the passport office). He pulled me in for a disappointingly stinky hug. What ever man wants, a cabbage-chest wife.
Josh has been gone in CA for the past few days so he surprised me and came home to eat lunch with me today (and since I had a stressful experience at the passport office). He pulled me in for a disappointingly stinky hug. What ever man wants, a cabbage-chest wife.
I'm skeptical and I don't like smelling cabbage so much, but I'm excited to see if this works!
Q: Have you ever tried this?
Q: How long do you leave it in? Do you have to replace it after a certain amount of time?
Q: Any other tips for helping ease engorgement (weaning remember?)?
8 comments:
I weaned both of my kids "cold turkey" and had really bad engorgement, the only thing that worked was to massage them in a hot shower, and when I could no longer stand it I would pump them completely empty. It only took a little while for the milk to stop coming in. I didn't really have mastitis problems though. I hope you feel better soon!
Ouch. I've only been engorged a few days after delivery when my milk came in. I was absolutely miserable. The only thing that helped was CABBAGE! Yes, it works. I would change it when it became "warm". Nice cold cabbage straight from the fridge worked the best. Good luck!
Hey Afton! I had similiar problems with Ellie when she was born and I went to see a lactation specialist. She also suggested cabbage, but the key is to roll it out with a rolling pin so that it is flat. Somehow this breaks up something in the cabbage that provides relief. Good luck!
A quick search turned this up.
http://www.ijcm.org.in/article.asp?issn=0970-0218;year=2008;volume=33;issue=3;spage=160;epage=162;aulast=Arora
Maybe you don't want me reading your blog though, or should I just not read posts like this?
Ouch!! I'm so sorry, how painful!! I hope it worked. Thankfully I haven't had to deal with this, I'm not sure why you have?!
Cali, good to know it worked for you! It's fun to hear that.
Krissy, I have never heard about rolling it out before, that's a good tip for the future, I didn't do that. I wonder what it does?
Cherise, I don't know how you physically or emotionally stopped cold turkey, was it HORRIBLE? Sounds awful. Did you do that both times?
Andrew, you're hilarious. Read all you want, I try to make it general enough that I won't care who reads it, as long as the reader doesn't care!
Autumn, I'm glad you've never been engorged. I wish I knew why I've had so many problems nursing, at least with Hazel. You're just tougher all around than I am, so it doesn't surprise me.
I know this is late, but for future mastitis reference: my midwife told me to fill two bowls, one with warm water and the other with ice water, alternate dipping yourself between the two. It actually did help, until the drugs kicked in.
Afton! It is so fun to find you in the blogging world. So I had chronic mastitis with my first but I found a miracle solution after four months straight of antibiotics not working. Cranberry pills and Lecithin. Lecithin helps thin your milk and cranberry is ulta antioxidant and kills the bacteria before it starts to grow. I buy the super strength stuff. Weaning is so sad. Good luck with the cabbage. I have only ever heard of that working when your milk first comes in, but hey it's worth a try. If you want to check out my blog, it is lawhalls.blogspot. BTW this is Rachel (Monson) Hall
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