Express feeding

[MaggieW]

I've been expressing and feeding as I'm unable to feed directly but I am now trying to gradually wind it down and stop. However even though it's over a week since I gave up one "express" I still am getting engorged and mastitis-like tender patches so end up expressing a little for relief. The amount I produce at the next proper express is huge so should I not take so much off? At the moment I'm expressing everything I can but it occurs to me that might be prolonging production at that time. Any advice please?

HI MaggieW

What time of the day/night are you expressing - I expect you know that hormone levels are most prevalent in the middle of the night (3/4am) and early morning so you will get loads off. Do you feel "empty" and soft after you have expressed, because if the boobs are not emptied either through feeding or expressing it can lead to engorgement and/or mastitis. What does your health vis/midwife say? You will still be producing if you are still feeding anyway so I don;t think its the expressing that is prolonging things. I found that I started to dry up naturally after about 3 months because I wasn't putting the baby to the boob as regularly as you do when you are feeding directly (DD was a very early baby and was born without the suck reflex, then was not a good natural feeder so we ended up using EBM in a bottle). The first thing I did was give up the night time express and this did help to slow things down. HTH, let me know how you go...

Thanks Moomicat. I actually stopped the early am express quite early on so yes I did expect breakfast express to be quite substantial, as it has been. The one I've just dropped is the mid morning one - as I write this it is 6 hours since I last expressed properly, apart from a v quick express 2 hours ago to relieve tenderness - my breasts right now are fit to burst and very sore - and that's a week on since dropping it! Am quite worried about dropping others as have experienced mastitis and never want to again! Will talk to health visitor at clinic tomorrow to see if they have any ideas.

Don't know much about expressing, but I recall that when I started dropping feeds with ds I found it easier to drop the later feeds first, ie drop the evening feed, then a few days later the afternoon feed, etc etc, leaving the morning feed till last. HTH

For various reasons, I had to express feed my oldest 2 for about 4 or 5 months each.

To drop a feed, I found that it was necessary to express less at that particular 'cycle' over a few days (gradually reducing to not expressing). Yes, usually more available at next express, but only take the amount you need, no more. In my case, things usually settled fine and I applied same system when next dropping a feed until I finally stopped.

Remember the more you express the more you produce (IYKWIM), so be strict when trying to reduce.

HTH

butterfly