Stopping breastfeeding - can I do it like this?

[MrsBumblebee]

I'm starting the process of stopping breastfeeding my six week old baby (reasons for stopping are long and tedious - I won't bore you with them here). I'm topping him up with formula at each feed anyway, so I was thinking of gradually reducing the time on the breast at each feed, rather than dropping a feed at a time. Does anyone have any experience of doing this? If so, do you have views on how long I should give him on the breast in order to reduce my supply without getting overly engorged (I'm doing ten minutes each side at the moment)? Or how quickly I should be able to cut down the number of minutes? Or whether I should give the formula top up before or after the breast (I'm currently giving it after)? Any advice much appreciated. Thanks.

[lemonaidtreasonandplot]

If you want to stop completely then it sounds as though you're doing it right -- far less chance of getting engorgement/blocked ducts/mastitis that way.

There's a good chance that as you increase top ups your supply will start to drop pretty quickly, so your DS will start to fuss at the breast and want the bottle sooner, so that you won't have to worry about artificially counting the number of minutes at each feed at all.

Do you have a set target on when you want to have stopped breastfeeding completely by? How many times (roughly) is he feeding in 24 hours at the moment?

[MrsBumblebee]

No, I don't have a specific target, which makes life much easier. It's a good point about him naturally wanting less time at the breast, so I hope that starts to happen. He's still feeding nearly every three hours at the moment - usually seven feeds in 24 hours.

[lemonaidtreasonandplot]

I think the general advice if going for a drop-a-feed-at-a-time approach is to drop a feed and then wait 3-4 days before dropping the next, so that your supply tapers off gradually and you don't risk mastitis. So seven feeds would take three to four weeks to drop gradually. You could assume the same kind of total time frame even though your actual approach is different -- probably towards the bottom end of the range given that you've been topping up to begin with. Which if you were counting minutes implies cutting back by about thirty seconds per side per feed each day.

[NellyTheElephant]

Hi, I stopped bf DD2 at around 5 months and I found a good way to do it was the other way around - i.e. once I had managed to get DD2 to take a bottle at all (another story) I would give a bottle first and then top up from the breast to relieve engorgement. How much does your DS currently take from the top up bottle? Why not start by offering that amount at each feed then topping up with bf and then increase the amount in the bottle bit by bit. I had no engorgement problems at all doing this and stopping took me 10 days in total. With DD1 I went with the drop a feed a week (well I did so every 4 or 5 days) and I found that much more uncomfortable each time I actually cut out a feed.

[MrsBumblebee]

Thanks Nelly, that sounds like really good advice. I think I'll try it your way.