If I am being treated for a breast infection, do I need to stop wearing wool nursing pads?

If I am being treated for a breast infection, do I need to stop wearing wool nursing pads? 

Most often, no...

For bacterial infections, you do not need to stop wearing the pads. 

For yeast infections, you might want to consider using disposables until your symptoms have cleared.  However, past experience with women who have had yeast infections, and who contacted us at the time, have shown that they had no recurrence, when they began using (or continued using) the pads without boiling them. 

When being treated for a breast yeast infection, we do recommend more frequent boiling of the pads, or after washing, placing them in an oven on 100 degrees Celsius (212 degrees Farenheit) for 10 minutes to remove yeast spores (ideally on a cookie sheet with parchment paper) – pads MUST be wet when placing them in the oven.  The wet pads can also be placed in a microwave oven on high for 3 minutes to remove yeast spores.  Care of Nursing Pads.

Also, yeast thrives in dark, moist environments.  Since the wool wicks moisture away from your skin, and feels dry until fully saturated, we suspect this might help inhibit the growth of yeast.