How can I treat postpartum edema?

I need your BEST advice for post partum edema! I had my baby girl last Friday and the swelling of my feet and ankles started to subside. However, once I got home from our stay I noticed them swelling back up and now I’m crying my eyes out because my feet, ankles and legs are literally 5x more swollen! I can’t put on any shoes, not even my one whole size too big Ugg boots will fit without a 2 minute struggle if at all. I never experienced this with my first two pregnancies. I’m aware of preeclampsia and it’s symptoms which I’m not currently having. From what I’ve read online edema is normal and will eventually go away but I just really hate to see my feet like this :disappointed_relieved:

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I wore compression socks as soon as I got home from the hospital for about a week! After that no more swelling!

I’m 4 weeks PP myself, so I just went through all of this. You have a LOT of excess blood in your body from the pregnancy. Unfortunately, gravity pulls it down to your feet. I freaked out a bit too when it came back. You’ll eventually filter all that excess fluid out naturally, ie lots of urination, over the next week or so. Just give it time and stay hydrated so your kidneys can do their thing.

ER, urgent care, doctor’s office

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R rest I ice C compression E elevation
R I C E

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Have you seen your doctor about this?

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Definitely get Drs opinion

Just elevate your legs up.avoid salt.

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Avoid salty foods, drink lots of water, keep your feet up (higher than your heart) as much as possible and remember…you’re not Wonder Woman, don’t push yourself and overdo every day. Give yourself time to rest and heal. Sleep when baby sleeps.

I’m so sorry you’re dealing with this . I had it really bad too and I had my baby 2 months ago . Honestly it needs to just subside itself . I would cry it hurt so bad. But anything they can give you would mess up your milk supply if you are breast feeding. I know it doesn’t feel like it but I promise it will get better . This is what mine looked like 2 weeks pp. the shoes I got were the flats from Walmart with the stretchy sides . They were a life saver. I still wear them now. I hope it goes away quickly , I knows it’s tough especially with baby .

You need to go to your Dr. I thought it would go away with home intervention. I waited a couple weeks and my Dr was not happy with me. I literally went on meds for a couple days and it went away. You don’t want to have a stroke. Go to your Dr. that’s why they are there. The medicine did not affect my milk. If anything once I got that excess fluid off my legs I had more milk! Good luck! Feel better! I have had 3 babies. Unfortunately I had 3 c sections and the swelling was horrible! The pain was bad. I thought my legs were going to burst open from stretching or something.

Please go see your doctor! My sister in love developed Postpartum preeclampsia after she had my niece and didn’t realize what was going on until she started losing her vision about a week after delivering… she just thought some of her symptoms was just normal for after delivery… she was rushed to the ER when her vision started messing up by the time she got there(30mins) she couldn’t see… she ended up seizing and we about lost her…she spent several days in ICU… the doctors told us if she wouldn’t have been in the ER when she seized they don’t think she would still be with us… Don’t take chances get it checked!

Compression socks and cut back on salt. Also call your doctor. I had eclampsia and did not have this problem.

My whole body had this for 10 weeks after my csection. Only thing that worked for me was going in an ice cold pool and being more active and not sitting for long periods so I would say take as cold as shower as you can and drink plenty of water to flush it out and if you’re not being active try to be a little bit more.

Mine did too, I eventually had to take water pills the dr give me, to get rid of the water I was retaining, the swelling went down everyday, by the 3rd day it was completely back to normal, I didn’t even take all the pills

I went through the same, plenty of water, elevate your feet, compression socks and a good diet will help. But if you’re overly worried you should seek your doctor’s advice.

I swelled bad after my first and my doctor told me to drink lots of liquids and pee a lot. I was on my feet a lot because she was in the NICU. You retain lots of fluid so by going to the bathroom you are losing the fluid your body retained.

I had it for a week after we got home drink lots of water lay on your sid u will keep haveing to p but it will help rid your body of it

I had this. It started to go away instantly when i put socks on.

I wonder if an epsom salt bath would help?

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Definitely - see your doctor. This much swelling is not normal, and you need to check it out. Do you eat much salt?