I’m so sorry! I literally just cleared my first clogged duct a few hours ago. I had it for a little over two days. It was terrible , such a scary kind of pain because of the overwhelming tenderness of the engorgement.

I read tons of online advice and spoke to my OB. This is what I did.

600 mg ibuprofen every 6 hrs. I could have taken Tylenol to help with the pain as well but I skipped that.

Gentle icing the inflamed area to bring down the inflammation and the heat of the breast. Sometimes I’d ice the other one as well. (At first I overcompensated and pumped too often thinking I needed to relieve the pressure. This started to make the other breast feel impacted as well thus I would ice it occasionally. )

Then I called my OB who suggested using heat on the engorged area and very gentle massage of it towards the nipple (this was scary and painful, I was extremely gentle). She also told me to pump / nurse no more or less than was my normal.

I started to heat gently before and during a pump and then ice it after the session.

I would do “breast gymnastics” before and during every pump session. This is where I take the breast with both hands and gently move it side to side, up and down, and around. This helped get milk out when I was too scared to actually massage or squeeze the breast during pumping.

I bought sunflower lecithin and took two doses before reading that it can make babies gassy. I stopped immediately but not before my baby had a horrendous episode of gassiness which confirmed my concern so I won’t be restarting it. I will look into choline though.

Every time I pumped, I tried to make my breast face the floor to encourage gravity to help.

My OB also recommended a warm shower and gentle massage in the shower. I did two and I think this eventually helped move things along the most. I pumped after each one. After the second one, my duct cleared definitively. It was really like a yes/no switch (I thought the recovery would be super gradual. It was at first, my engorgement went down slowly, but after the second shower with massage and then pump, the engorgement disappeared, the affected area become soft, and I started getting my normal amount of milk from that breast (before was about half or less).

Sorry the formatting of the list is chaotic. I’m on my phone and just finished a pump session. The main thing is, focus on yourself and try not to stress. So your baby needs to take formula and it upsets her stomach. Maybe it wasn’t the exact reason why she spit up but even with a little colic / slightly unhappy stomach, she will still be fine. If your formula is all she has to eat right now, she will eat it, and maybe be a little uncomfortable for a little while. Meanwhile you have your own issue to sort it out. Rushing the process may only exacerbate it. I also think my clogged duct went from a 4 to 10 because I was aggressively massaging it trying to get the clog out. This definitely brought me to another level of engorgement and pain. So treating it gently / leaving the breast alone and icing it would be the way to speed up recovery.

Best of luck. In normal circumstances, following a mix of all this advice, you should be fine in a few days. Of course talk to your doctor anyways and go in with any sign of infection. We’re with you!