Stopping BF 7mo by going cold turkey

[littlemissdaydreamer]

Does anyone have any experience of stopping breastfeeding a 7 month old baby by going cold turkey?
I've got many reasons for needing to stop this way so I'm not looking for a discussion on the benefits of continuing to breastfeed, just some insight from someone that has been in the same situation.
My lo will take about 1oz from the bottle sometimes, and flatly refuses it others. So I know he knows what to do, but for some reason he won't take a full feed from the bottle. I've tried various bottles and cups; NUK with latex teats have been most successful so far.
Thanks in advance

[1sttimemama1986]

Hiya I stopped bf at 7 months and stopped over course of 1-2 weeks. Gradually introducing a bottle instead of boob every few days. This was still really hard and my baby has always taken to bottle fine. My struggle may just be me though as I had issues with getting really full boob when one missed feed so stopping bf led to very full and extremely painful boobs. I ended up with mastitis even though I thought I had stopped fairly gradually.

I took paracetamol and ibuprofen during this time and eventually antibiotics to clear the infection.

Good luck with it, I wouldn't recommend going full cold turkey as wouldn't have worked for me but everyone is different.

[absandme]

The only advice I would say is if you can slowly cut out feeds before going cold turkey otherwise your going to experience a lot of discomfort. Even dropping feeds to say 2 a day you will know about it with your boobs. If when you have stopped you are allowed to take off some of the pressure by expressing, not too much to make your body think it's demanding a supply, but just so you feel better.
Cabbage leaves work a treat for discomfort too. Watch out for infection, any redness or temperature and flu like symptoms for mastitis.
A friend of mine used to have a weekend in London on her own whenever she stopped bf her kids, it took her totally out of the situation and meant baby had no choice of feeding but from a bottle.
Be prepared that you may get sadness when you stop.
Look after yourself and do what is best for you and your baby :-)

[Heirhelp]

I stopped bf at six weeks and probably did it too quickly but I hated it and baby was happy with formula.

If you suddenly stop then you risk mastitis.

[Pitchforktotheface]

Cold turkey is likely to cause mastitis. So either cut down slowly or if you really need to stop straight away they express until your supply dwindles - hand or pump.

[Pitchforktotheface]

As for bottle feeding, try paced feeding - one ounce an hr. Breast-fed babies aren't used to taking large amounts, it is why they are constantly on the boob! He'll need to get used to having more in one go so start off small and work it up.

[Matilda1981]

My dd2 gave up breastfeeding at 8 months old I have no idea why totally went on strike but would happily take milk from a Nuby active flexi straw bottle (although I took the straw out - that will make sense if you have a look at one) anyway to get to the point my boobs were pretty solid for 3/4 days then went down v quickly I was amazed! I hand expressed to take a bit of pressure off but i didn't need to express much and was ok. She was drinking over a litre of formula instead so I must have been producing hell of a lot of milk!!!!

[parmavioletmartini]

I'm not doing cold turkey but I'm trying to stop breastfeeding by 8mo this week I have gone from 5 feeds to 3. Dropping a feed every 4 days. Now just on first and last thing and 1 night feed. Have had a small amount of soreness and just expressed 2oz for comfort only on the first day of dropping each feed. So it had been quite quick. My DD didn't take bottles so I have not replaced any feeds with formula just snacks and water.

Can you speak to your health visitor she did say that cold turkey would be an option but obviously had an increased risk of mastitis.