Jenna Dewan Used Raw Potatoes to Treat This Common Breastfeeding Condition — & They Really Work
Jenna Dewan is a mom of three, and she clearly loves it. As the Step Up star recently said of her youngest, Rhiannon, who turned six months(!) old in December, “I still just stare at you and can’t believe I’m lucky enough to call you mine. The way you seem to make everything better and everyone happier… something tells me you have the healing touch in this life.” Cue the awww‘s!
But Dewan is also honest about the not-so-adorable parts of motherhood. For example: mastitis. In a set of Instagram photos celebrating her return to The Rookie after maternity leave — including multiple sweet pictures of mom and baby! — Dewan included a selfie showing her reclining on a bed with what look like raw potato slices on her chest. Some fans were left confused. “Wait what do the potatoes do?” one person commented. “Are the soothing or helping with maybe stretch marks or just skin stuff in general?”
Turns out, raw potatoes can actually help with symptoms of mastitis, which is swelling and redness of the breast tissue, sometimes involving an infection, according to Mayo Clinic. People who are breastfeeding are most likely to get mastitis, which can include symptoms like breast tenderness or warmth, breast swelling, breast lumps, a burning feeling or pain while breastfeeding, and even a fever. Per the Cleveland Clinic, mastitis affects up to 10 percent of breastfeeding people in the US.
Dewan dealt with mastitis for the first time while pregnant with Rhiannon, she told Us Weekly back in September — and she tried everything to find relief. “Anything someone DMed me, I was like, ‘I’m gonna try that,'” she explained, “because it was so miserable. It was so awful.”
And an Instagram post from August showed Dewan wasn’t exaggerating about all the remedies she tried, sourced from a supportive network of fellow moms. In addition to applying “thinly sliced potatoes after feeds,” she also used hot Epsom salt baths “to help with the shaking,” and put castor oil on her breasts with a warm compress on top. She also took probiotics, vitamins C and E, ibuprofen, and antibiotics.
In the post, Dewan said the potatoes eased her inflammation — and she’s right. According to a 2016 report in the IOSR Journal of Nursing and Health Science, they can help with pain, swelling, and redness if applied within the first 24 hours of noticing symptoms. Per the authors, you should start with six to eight washed, raw potatoes and soak them in room temperature water before applying a few to your breasts. The slices should be replaced every 15 to 20 minutes.
As for Dewan, she reported in the Us Weekly interview that she thinks the potato trick worked. “But it was kind of in combination with also antibiotics, which really worked,” she explained. “You gotta have the natural and the actual medicine work together.” Sounds like this mom of three found the combination of strategies that worked for her. If you can relate to the mastitis struggle, make sure to talk treatment options with your doctor to relieve your symptoms.
Before you go, shop these essentials for bed-resting moms-to-be: