Advice on stopping breastfeeding
So P's paediatrician has finally agreed she might be lactose intolerant or have a milk allergy. He has put her on Nutramigen and i have now weaned her onto 100% Nutramigen bottles. Had to mix with normal Aptamil first as it tastes so foul. He said there is no point going on Nutramigen until i want to stop breastfeeding as she needs to be totally dairy and lactose free. So i decided i had to stop to try and help her with all the pain abd allergy symptoms she is getting.
Problem is i really really dont want to or feel ready and P is constantly looking for it. Everytime i hold her she sucks my top/shoulder/neck/ear where she just wants to bf. When i lay her down to ff her she goes in for a bf and it breaks my heart that i cant and have to stick this bottle of foul tasting stuff in her mouth instead.
Anyway emotional issues aside, which i just need to get over(!), how do you physically stop? I have been cutting back more day by day and got down to once a day. Yesterday i decided it had to be my last one so i darkened my bedroom, laid down on the bed with P and breastfed her for the last time -it felt really special as well as sad. I havent bf again since then and now my boobs are quite engorged. Do i ride it out? Or express a bit but then surely i will just make more? I cant remember what i did with G....!
X
Replies
I used to wait until it got really painful, like they were going to explode, then express just a bit, enough to stop then leaking like mad and hurting, but so they still felt quite full. Think I had to do that for about 1 and a half weeks then managed to get by without expressing any and they gradually got less firm. Took a few weeks before they felt like normal boobs rather than hard though .
When you express just try to express the
Minimum you can to feel comfortable
I did the same as JT. I had to express off a little bit as the pain got too much. Only did it about 4 times though before it settled down
I stopped completely cold turkey last wednesday from EBF to FF. I got really engorged by wednesday evening, thursday and friday were bad but by saturday it had calmed down a bit and today the pain has almost gone, although boobs are still quite lumpy! Not the ideal way to do it but it wasnt as bad as I thought!
Thanks everyone xx
If it helps, Heidi is FF and she sucks my shoulder, ears, face, neck etc.
You've battled so much with this. Don't feel bad about stopping if that's what you need to do.
Not what is recommended but I used to leave it as long as I could physically stand then feed him. Ended up going to one feed a day pretty much straight away but then carried on with 1 feed in the morning for a month or two so when I did totally stop it was hardly noticeable.
I would express a little to relieve yourself. I remember one night it was so bad I actually woke O up to make him feed! It does get better quite quickly though. Don't know if I did something wrong but the cabbage leaves in your bra trick did absolutely nothing for me.