Recurring clogs & mastitis - despite changing pumps, what am I doing wrong?

Clogs & Mastitis (PLEASE tag nasty pics NSFW)

Please help a FTM out, I’m barely hanging on 🥺😭 I’ve had full blown mastitis 2x in 2 weeks and now I feel another bout of it coming on. I keep having clogs (like hard lumps in various parts of my breast tissue) popping up, ping pong-ing from one breast to the other and often clogs in both and I’m talking multiple lumps.

Possible factors:

  • my baby has lip & tongue ties that we’ve had released but since introducing bottles, he basically won’t nurse at all. I wish he did, my life would be easier/less painful.
  • I have large breasts (prior to pregnancy I wore a 30J).
  • I used the momcozy pump all the time for my first 4 weeks post partum and I thought that was maybe compressing my larger breasts.
  • To test that hypothesis, I’ve been using the Medela Symphony (rental from the hospital) for the last 2 weeks exclusively but STILL having the same issues.
  • I’ve tried various different flanges with both.
  • I’m having vasospasms (nipples turning white with the cold) which I only started having in pregnancy in my first trimester.

Please help, I’m hanging on my a thread here 😭😭😭

Posted Sep 29, 2025, 11:36 PM UTC

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