Forum home Babies Baby

Help to stop BF!

We have made the choice to stop breastfeeding. I've EBF for over 2 months and am very proud but I now wish to stop. I believe Darcey has had the best start I could give but i'd like my body back now. I leak terribly and have done so since I was about 20 weeks pregnant. Going through tens of pads a day and soaking bra's, tops and bed sheets.

She's happy to take a bottle, has stayed at my parents over night twice and gladly took EBM out of tommy tippee bottle over the 24 hours and settled and slept just as well at night. I've tested her with Aptimal last week twice and both times guzzled it fine with no after effects.

Do I go cold turkey? Do I feed a little from the breast, then top up with formula? Do I exchange a bottle for a feed? I'm confused there are so many different answers.......
Thanks in advance x

Replies

  • I don't know the "right" answer, but when I started switching my LO over to bottles I did it one feed at a time. Perhaps start with just the one bottle feed, then if your boobs feel ok after a few days (or however long it takes) up it to two bottle feeds, etc.

    I can't speak from experience but imagine that if you went cold turkey it'd be really uncomfortable for you and the leaking problem would be even worse.

    Good luck.
  • hi i went cold turkey. i ff her on demand to start with but if u have a routine already might be worth trying that.be aware your boobs will leak for a while, mine took about 4 weeks to stop completly! and they will feel very hard and painful for about 5 days or so. i was advised not to express off them as it just prolongs it!
    good luck and well done on ebf for as long as you did image x
  • I made the switch this weekend! I went from BF-ing about 10-12 times per day to expressing three to four times per day. I'm on day three now and my breasts are fine - not swollen or sore at all.

    At first I was expressing around 5 oz from each boob (although I was not emptying them) and now it's more like 2 oz - so I have 'dried up' fairly quickly.

    Our LO is also predominantly on Aptamil now and is taking it fine.

    Good luck!

    Cath xx
  • Hi, it is advised that you drop one breastfeed every 2 days. Also space them out so that you don't burst! i.e you may choose to first drop the morning feed, so 2 days later you should drop the mid-afternoon feed rather than the lunchtime one, if you see what I mean??? - so you will get to the point where you are alternating breast and bottle. Then just keep on replacing a breastfeed with a bottle feed every 2 days. This is what I was advised by hv and wouldn't advise doing it any quicker as it was still quite painful! I just used my pump to take off a couple of oz if I got too uncomfortable.

    xx
  • I recently stopped and my HV advised I drop one feed every 2-3 days.
    That was after I decided to go cold turkey one day and just express to take the edge off so my supply gradually decreased - by evening I already had a lump in one boob and got scared of getting mastitis so realised I had to go slow.

    Doing it this way meant it took about 2 weeks to stop but it wasn't too bad. Plus it meant Beth's tummy could get used to having formula slower which was probably kinder for her too. I did hand express a tiny bit off in the shower if it got too painful.

  • If you find your breasts feel uncomfortably full put cold cabbage leaves (from the fridge) into your bra. Magic image
Sign In or Register to comment.

Featured Discussions