Breast Massage and Mastitis in Early Infancy: Case Report

Mastitis is the infection of mammary gland. In spite of its rarity except nursing period, it seems relatively more common in neonatal period. Because of their immaturity, early infancy is a predisposing period for infections. In addition to this predisposition, traditional squeezing, massage or coin compression on hypertrophic breasts, which are affected by maternal hormones in pregnancy, play a major role in neonatal mastitis, by causing corruption of dermal integrity. We presented a 32 days old male newborn, who had a prominent left mammarian abscess, with the diagnosis of neonatal mastitis. In this case report we aimed to discuss the neonatal mastitis by pointing out the risks of newborn breast massage which is commonly performed in our country, and to make sense about this clinical table which has a mortality risk and may cause cosmetic problems in elder ages.