Stopping breastfeeding 18mo - breasts massive and painful help please

[Issy16]

Hi everyone,

Would be grateful for your advice. Have decided to stop feeding my 18 month old because she seemed ready and we would like to try for No2. Fortunately she has taken it well and seems perfectly happy to fall asleep with cuddles and story instead of boob, which is great! But it has been 2 days since I fed her and I am huge and very uncomfortable. I have dropped her feeds gradually, she has been having just 2 per day (nap and bedtime) for months now. I dropped the naptime feed and waited a about 5 days before dropping the bedtime feed.

Does anyone know how long it is going to take for the engorgement to pass? And what is going to happen to the milk - where will it go? I have been expressing a tiny bit by hand to relieve the pressure, does this interfere with the milk decreasing?

Thanks so much for your help!

If you are in so much pain, you can pump or hand express to relieve the pressure.
The engorgement is a natural part of stopping BFing, but it can be very painful.
You may become engorged again after expressing, but it should be better than this time.
Expressing will slightly lengthen the time it takes for your breasts to stop producing milk completely, but don't worry too much. They will stop as long as you don't express too many times or too often.
Expressing will also reduce the chance of your ducts being blocked or having other such problems.

express just enough off to keep yourself comfortable and you should be fine. you don't want to risk getting mastitis or anything

I would keep on hand expressing only - with pumping you have to be very careful not to encourage more milk supply.

Express in a nice warm bath - that will also help with the pain.

i recently stopped in much the same way. i hand expressed in a warm shower, just enough to ease the engorgement. that really helped and it took about 5 days or a week for them to feel soft and 'normal' again

i'm having this (only on one side, oddly). i've started taking sage capsules (i'm sure dried sage from the supermarket is cheaper but i couldn't face it). not sure if it's working yet cos i'm still on one feed a day.

It doesn't go anywhere... personally I'd express (ideally hand) until they were soft, yes it might generate a bit more milk, but you'll generate less next time and you'll at least be comfortable. If hand expressing doesn't work use a pump, but take off just enough until soft, you should be able to increase the length of time between expressing etc.

When I stopped feeding DD 2 weeks later I still felt full so let her drink it (from me), and it never came back. At your DD's age though best to use a pump etc.