Aibu to stop breastfeeding for 12 days and think I'll be able to restart?

[Greycloudspinkclouds]

Hello, posting here looking for some success stories to give me some hope. Or perhaps something else.

I have to have some strong medication for 10 days and cannot breastfeed on it. Then a day or two for it to leave my system.

My baby is 5.5 months and exclusively breastfed. I started the medication yesterday so she started on bottles and formula then. Luckily she took it happily.

I am feeling so desperately sad about stopping. I want to restart as soon as I can, and go back to just breastfeeding. I am trying to pump several times a day (throwing the milk away obviously) and feed her with the bottle in the same position I breastfeed her in. And be the only one who feeds her.

So wanted to ask:

• any success stories from anyone who has had to interrupt breastfeeding then managed to go back to exclusively breastfeeding?

• any top tips?

• aibu to hope that we can just pick up where we left off in 12 days?

Background: I have never had problems with milk supply or latch with her or with the other children I've breastfed to 1+ years old. The consultants were very very clear that I categorically cannot give her my milk with these drugs in, so no chance possibly at all.

Disclaimer: absolutely no criticism of anyone who bottle-feeds for choice or otherwise. I know it's not the end of the world if she stays on formula it's just I love breastfeeding and can't bear it to have finished.

If you pump and dump when you would normally have fed it's absolutely possible. My DD1 had a nursing strike and refused the breast for 9 days (obviously I pumped and bottle fed, which she was rubbish at) but when she went back on it took a matter of a few days before my supply was back at full capacity.

Seeing this very late. I’m sorry you had to go through that. Most conditions have a safe for breastfeeding medication available. It’s just a matter of the doctor taking the time to do the research.

to anyone who reads this thread, please push back if your GP tries to do this. It’s not your fault that the GP isn’t properly educated on lactation.

back when I had dd it was so bad I bought my own copy of Hales, medication and mother’s milk: a manual of lactational pharmacology. I would bring it with me to doctor’s appointments. Thankfully the internet has made information more accessible, but doctor training has not improved.