help!sudden stop to bf at 10 mo - what do i do with all this milk?!

[cheritongirl]

Due to my ds now deciding to bite me like crazy every time he was feeding (he has 4 teeth and knows how to use them - made me cry yesterday!) i think this is it and i am stopping bf NOW - he has taken formula last night and this morning happily having refused it all his life so far. But now my boobs are really full and HURT. I don't want to express coz i know my body will then produce more. What do i do??!
Feeling really sad that our bf relationship is over so suddenly but really can't deal with the pain...
thanks!

[SofiaAmes]

My dd quit bfing around 11 months and I seem to remember that I expressed just a little to relieve the pain. And that the milk disappeared fairly quickly anyway.

[usandnosleep]

I stopped when DS was 12 months, went from 4 feeds a day to 1 for a week then just stopped. Had one slightly uncomfortable day and then fine - I was pleasantly surprised!

DS took a couple of weeks to get used to it which was the hardest bit, bless him he used to climb up at me tugging my top. 8 weeks on it's strange to remember all the emotions involved in stopping, I was heartbroken and still miss it sometimes. But we're both great and DS is sleeping MUCH better!

[Beachcomber]

Would you consider some stratagies to try and get the biting to stop? You may have done this already of course. Lots of babies go through a biting stage and sometimes you can get them to stop. One technique is to push them right into the breast so that they have to let go to breathe (I know instinct is to pull away and yell!).

This article has some tips in it.

you may have this already

Otherwise a bit of gentle expressing will let the pressure off, just don't express too much. Apparantly mint helps to reduce milk production, I have a friend who swears by mint tea to reduce engorgement, could be worth a try.

[cheritongirl]

yes i have tried those techniques to stop biting - he has been doing it on and off since 6 mo but now does it all the time so i think this is the end.. will try expressing and mint! Any other ideas? thanks..

[jumpyjan]

Hi Cheriton

I stopped breastfeeding DD last week because she was biting me. I was going to drop a feed at a time but just could not carry on so stopped suddenly (she was absolutely fine with it and v happy).

My boobs are still not back to normal but they only hurt for the first 2 days then they were hard but not painful. I did not express or anything for the same reason. I am now on day 5 and there are still a few hard lumps but no pain.

I too felt a bit sad the first night that I stopped but am fine now. One of the nice things is that now when she wakes in the night we have a nice cuddle and she settles back down to sleep again wheras before I just would have fed her and put her down again(which she did not really need she just wanted some contact not food).

I soon realised that she still needs her mummy and she doesn't just love me for my boobs!

Good luck.

[mears]

You can either ride it out, take painkillers and use cabbage leaves for a few daqys, or you can express for comfort and give DS the EBM.

You are right that expressing will stimulate more milk production, but that is only if it is done on a regular basis.

You could express your breasts completely now and then do nothing else again unless in total agony. The pressure of milk in your breasts will trigger a shutdown of milk.

Alternatively you can express regularly then extend the time between expressings which will also reduce milk production. HTH.

[Elffriend]

Hi, same advice really, express just as much as you need in order to relieve the pressue - massaging the knots as you do can really help. It will calm down in the next few days. Try not to feel too sad (easy for me to say, I cried buckets when I had to start moving DS across to formula), you will feel the wrench much more so than DS and, as jumpyjam has written, your baby loves you, not your boobs! You will not lose any of the intimacy. Don't be too worried if you feel weepy those - as much as anything it is down to the raging hormone change as your body readjust. Good luck!

[time4tea]

me too, I've cut down bf recently and was expressing just enough to be comfortable, I found it was gradually less and less each day to get comfortable (ie could I lie in bed without wincing) and went from 2oz from each breast the night before last to no expressing at all last night and now feel quite comfortable

good luck, and as others have said, don't try to feel sad (hard not to) but instead celebrate your achievement in bf'ing so long. like nice new slinky bra! I have a little chafed patch on one boob, toast crumbs got down my bf bra and rubbed on the poor boob, am putting Sudocream on it (glamour!)can't wait to get back to normal now, and DS2 seems happy on bottles.