Mighty_Baby was born almost two months ago at 11.5 lbs, which made her paediatrician decide to test her for increased levels of insulin just in case her size had been a result of me suffering gestational diabetes (I didn’t test positive for it though). She put the baby on formula to check for her glucose levels before and after feedings for 24 hours. Fortunately our baby was perfectly healthy, but after receiving regular food she wasn’t going to settle for whatever measly colostrum she was getting from me, and thus started our problems.
With much effort on my part I also nursed her, she wasn’t happy and seemed to prefer the bottle. Soon I started producing milk, too much in fact, so I decided to get her off formula even if that meant that I had to express milk for 6 months. Three things have happened since: Mighty_Baby takes the breast even less, I produce more milk (I have the freezer full of milk now) and I got some plugged ducts on both breasts. Nothing I did worked to unplug the ducts and after I ended up with huge build up on both breasts I went to see my gynecologists. She had to drain them with a syringe (you don’t want to hear about that), she also advised me to express milk more frecuently to avoid the same problem.
Now the problem is that I am producing even more milk and it’s getting very uncomfortable, plus I see that the plugged duct didn’t resolve in one of my breasts. I have two questions: I am taking the massage, hot showers, hot baths, lecithin and oatmeal approach but if the baby is loath to take the breast I will keep getting plugged ducts. How do I get the baby to switch from bottle to breast? And in case I can’t, what can I do abut the chronic plugged ducts?