Have you been struggling with clogged milk ducts? Do you have spots that get tender and sore to the touch when you wear an underwire bra? Do you get those spots when you try to sleep on your belly, or you wear a sports bra for an extended period of time? Many things can cause clogged milk ducts, and this is my story of using a natural remedy to resolve clogged ducts.

This past weekend we spent two days living, breathing, and watching basketball. My husband is the assistant coach for a local homeschool varsity basketball team and we were at the beginning of the state title tournament. It was a long, but fun weekend. It didn’t turn out how we expected, as one of our team’s better players injured his ankle in the first three minutes of the first game, he couldn’t play the rest of the weekend and is hoping to be able to move enough to be able to play this coming weekend, at the  national regional tournament. We didn’t make it to the state finals like we had expected but it was still so much fun!

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Earlier in that week I had noticed that I was getting some clogged milk ducts. I had really wanted to sleep on my belly, and I hadn’t done it in a long, long time, so I decided to go for it. But looking back, I think that it caused those clogged  milk ducts for me. 🙁

Natural Remedies to Eliminate Clogged Milk Ducts

Before we left I tried all of my standby natural remedies to eliminate the clogged ducts:

*Sunflower Lecithin

*dangle feeding

*hot compresses + hot shower before nursing

*frequent nursing

*breast massage

*increasing fluids

*changing nursing positions

*pumping

But for the first time these natural remedies didn’t work for me, and I was not looking forward to a busy weekend breastfeeding a eleven-month old who pops off every time he hears or sees something interesting, and trying to deal with a plugged milk duct.

{Cameron has never done well with a nursing cover. He is a very touchy, cuddly boy and always wants to see my face, pat my cheek, hold my hand, etc. Covers just haven’t been worth it with him because any coverage we would have gotten using them is immediately ruined when he flings the cover off to find my hair. If you do see me nursing Cameron, you aren’t going to see boob all over, it is possible to nurse modestly without a cover. That said, if there are other men around, besides my husband and family, I will go into a different room or a corner away from a lot of activity, just because I find it more comfortable for myself.}

I generally try to find a quiet place where we can sit, nurse, and cuddle. Pretty difficult in a building where the are over eighty basketball teams and hundreds of families. So we headed to the bathroom and found a comfy spot in a corner. Cameron nursed for a minute or two, watched the girls and women come and go, and then ate some more. I chatted with other mommas who “remembered those days”, and who gave me the sound advice to “remember every minute”. Then the sweetest older lady came in, took one look at us and said, “You don’t have to hide in here honey! There are lots of chairs out there! You can feed him out there, nobody will mind.” 🙂 Breastfeeding mommas will appreciate this with me because it is always nice to hear these kinds of remarks. I wasn’t really hiding in the bathroom, if Cameron wasn’t a social nurser I would have been  out there, but to hear those words made my day. Thank you women, and men, who encourage young mothers to breastfeed. Thank you for helping others to realize it is normal and that breastfeeding is nothing to be ashamed of or hide.

We were in the bathroom a lot those two days. At eleven months Cameron still nurses between five to six times a day and once or twice at night. I was nursing him on the side with the plugged duct, and trying the remedies that I mentioned above, and still nothing was helping. So I talked to my mom, who is a Certified Childbirth Educator and blogs over at Childbirth World, what else to try. She recommended using cabbage leaves. I had ever only heard of cabbage leaves being used to help dry milk supply, not to eliminate clogs, so I went to do it {obedient daughter that I am} but I also wanted to know more about the science behind it. I didn’t find much in the way of science, though the last link does have a few studies and their results, but here is what I found:

*Home Remedies for Clogged Milk Ducts
*Natural Remedies for Mastitis and Blocked Ducts- Holistic Squid
*Cabbage Leaves for the Prevention and Treatment of Engorgement

 

How I Used Cabbage Leaves to Eliminate My Plugged Milk Ducts

Tired of getting clogged milk ducts? Check out this natural remedy that you've probably never heard of! #breastfeeding #crunchymom #naturalremedies Click To Tweet

About ten to fifteen minutes after I put the first leaf on my breast and nipple felt tingly, hot and then sore. It continued to throb randomly over the next six hours. I am now a believer in cabbage leaves and whatever healing properties they may have. I used three leaves over six hours and my clog was gone. To relieve engorgement, plugged milk ducts, and mastitis using cabbage leaves you just follow these instructions:
*take off the outer couple of leaves
*place a cold leaf around your breast concentrating on the sore area
*wait until it the cabbage leaf wilts- usually between one and two hours
*replace if you are still having symptoms

That’s it!!

 

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