What on earth is happening to my breasts?

[hazelnutlatte]

I stopped breastfeeding my 14 month old 2 weeks ago. She was only feeding once a day for the last month or so so I thought it would be OK to just stop cold turkey. All was fine for a week, then my right breast got very sore and misshapen with hard lumpy areas. I thought it might be mastitis so I hand expressed a bit and it settled down, but is now constantly leaking milk! I've had to buy breast pads, which I didn't even need to use when dd was a newborn as my breasts didn't ever leak. Now my left breast seems to be doing the same, in the last few days it's gone hard, lumpy and leaky!
Has anyone experienced similar or have any advice? I don't know whether to try and hand express a bit again or whether that will prolong the problem even longer. I thought that 2 weeks without breastfeeding would be enough to give my boobs the message that milk was no longer needed but apparently not! Is there a supplement / medication I can take to dry the milk up?

[Hedgeh0g]

Sudafed or similar is supposed to dry milk up. I'd express enough to stay comfortable, you don't want to risk mastitis.

[mannekenpis]

Sounds normal although keep a close watch that the lumpy bits don't get too sore/red/infected. I stopped feeding DD at a similar age, took max dose of sudafed like the above poster mentioned and also used chilled cabbage leaves in my bra. It took a few weeks to settle down as I had still been sort of feeding on demand/co-sleeping.

[hazelnutlatte]

Glad to hear it sounds normal, I didn't realise it could take so long to settle down. Might go and get some sudafed - I have some lemsip at home which contains a similar decongestant, do you think that would work?

[Hedgeh0g]

The Breastfeeding Network drugs in breastmilk fact sheet reckons pseudoephedrine, phenylpropanolamine and phenylephrine can all potentially reduce milk supply.