How to avoid mastits and blocked ducts when stopping breastfeeding

[Nadene]

I have to stop breastfeeding my baby because I am on anti-inflammatory drugs now due to kidney stones. What should I do to get my milk to dry up but to avoid getting mastitis and blocked milk ducts? Should I hand express sometimes to relieve the pressure? But doesn't this encourage more to be produced?

I'll tell you what I did when weaning dd1. I did it over a period of a few weeks. 1st week I stopped night feeding. 2nd week I stopped feeding in the morning and 3rd week I stopped feeding in the afternoon/evening. I did not suffer from mastitis. If it ever became unbearble I expressed to relieve the pressure only. Although it worked for me it is possible I may have gone a little bit quickly - I think that the standard advice is to drop 1 feeed every few days/week. Hope this helps!

If you have to stop suddenly, due to taking medication, I would definately express to relieve engorgement. Yes, expressing will encourage milk to be produced, but not nearly so much as actual breastfeeding ( expressing isn't as efficient ). It will basically be the same as dropping feeds gradually - your supply will gradually decrease, you'll find you'll need to express less and less often and you should avoid any problems. It might take a few weeks.

Thanks, but my problem is that I have to stop all feeds immediately because of the tablets I have to take. Otherwise I would do it slowly over a period of time.

Thanks Rosie Posie, my other message was for Friendly Girl.

Also my other problem is that one boobs is much bigger than the other. Should I try and express from the smaller one in order to encourage more from it, to even things up?

Hi there, I understand now that you need to stop immediately. I think Rosie Posie us right in what she says. As for your question about the smaller and bigger boob, I would express only to relieve any pressure and not in order to even things up. You want ot be discouraging both breasts now and not encouraging either of them.

Just wanted to add something. Are you worrying that you will end up with one boob bigger than the other? If so, expressing more from the smaller one would not help since there is no correlation between breast size and quantity of milk production. It may be that as your milk dries up your swollen boobs will even up of themselves.