Am feeling very sad because I have to stop breastfeeding. How can I make it as painless as possible for me and DS?

[Bartimosaurus]

DS is 8.5 months.

Our current situation is a breastfeed first thing in the morning, a feed off to sleep at night and usually 3 feeds in the night when he wakes up in order to get him back to sleep. The night feeds are usually very short and he doesn't drink much (unless it's very hot) but he does root for them and gets distressed if I don't give in (I usually give in quickly 'cos I'm so tired and it's the quickest way to get back to bed for me).

During the day he eats solids for breakfast, lunch and tea plus a bottle of formula at 4pm (he doesn't really like formula, prefers water, but will accept it once a day).

I work during the week and sometimes at the weekend if he's ill or very upset I'll occasionally BF him during the day, just for a few minutes for comfort.

My problem is that I have migraines. They are getting worse and closer together and I can't take any medecine for them whilst BF. So, last night, whilst lying awake for 3 hours in pain I decided I'm going to have to stop BF

I love BF and so does DS. I've always found it easy and enjoyable and I am very to give it up. But I can't go on with these migraines, especially as DS is a very bad sleeper and the tiredness and stress of him waking up and trying to get him back to sleep is a major contributing factor to my migraines.

So, I can drop the morning feed with very little problem. Already he doesn't always have it if I have to go to work early and he's not ready for it.

But, how can I drop the bedtime feed and the night feeds? Especially as he isn't keen on formula...

Any tips for making this easier for me and DS are greatly welcomed!

Suppose you have already considered the stuff u rub on forehead? Maybe that's allowed during bf. Although possibly not strong enough for you?

Oh dear, you poor thing. I'm a chronic god-awful migraineur too so entirely entirely sympathise. I'm going to do one of those annoying thread derails and not answer your question! It's because you sound so sad about stopping, not because I have my own agenda, but:

Have you tried (I'm sure you have) different migraine preventative medication, rather than just acute treatments? I take amitriptyline daily and have much fewer attacks, and am still BFing.

Also, I dimly recall there having been some new info on triptans and BF (it's triptans I presume you're concerned about) - do call Wendy at the Breastfeeding Network drugs line to see if what you want/need to take is safe or not. You probably have already.

Sorry if I'm teaching grandmother to suck eggs but it's sad to hear someone having to give up when they maybe don't really want to. I know how trapped you can feel by the migraine cycle though, really I do.

I can't speak for OP, but the stuff you rub on foreheads is about as useful as a chocolate teapot for my migraines - fair suggestion though!

at chocolate teapots!

I have a stock of 4head stick a patch on your head stuff (I'm not in the UK so get friends to bring it across). It can help, but only when I'm also taking the strong medication. And only for a couple of hours. Funnily enough I find the best way it helps is to remind my family that I'm feeling crap so not to ask me any questions!

Funnily enough, when I was on the strong stuff (daily treatment + stuff whenever I had a migraine) I thought it was rubbish and didn't work because I still had the headache/nausea etc. Then I stopped all medication because I was pregnant and realised just how much of the pain had been taken away!

I see a neurologist every 6 months. He really wants me to stop BF so he can treat me! Last time he gave me something but I can't feed for 24 hours afterwards. I have to admit that I've never tried it, it got put in a cupboard and forgotten about Must get it out and have a look. Remembered it at 3am but it was not the time to go hunting - really didn't want DS to wake up.

mombo didn't know there were daily treatments that I could take whilst BF. Will investigate. I'd just taken the neurologist at his word when he said there was nothing to take whilst BF, except the acute treatment which isn't compatible with BF.

A lot of medicine is not licensed for use during BF, but that doesn't mean that it's not safe.

If you're not in the UK then you could try LactMed (there is also a free LactMed phone app that is pretty good) or if there is an LLL group nearby then see if they've got a copy of Hale's that they can look in for you.

Good luck with everything :)

It maybe that he has given you a triptan as they say not to feed for 24hours after taking. But they have in the last two years changed the recommendations for Sumatriptan (which is the one I'm now taking). The main reason being is even though the drug goes through to your milk it has a low oral bioavability. So baby can only absorb a ting doses. The bfn drugs in breast milk help line was very useful for me.

You need to take into account how stopping feeding will have on you and your DS. Remembering that formula has negative health effects on you and your DS.

Some drugs are considered save to give direct to babies but they will still refuse to give them to breastfeeding mum as they haven't been tested in this way. But they never will be either due to ethical concerns.

You need to take into account

that few doctors have experience giving drugs to breastfeeding mum as they don't come across many of us who feed long term.

There are - amitriptyline is officially an antidepressant, but I take a lower dose as migraine preventative and it (mostly) does the trick. There are others but I don't know much about them.

Dehydration is a massive part of my migraines so I drink pints and pints and pints of water. I imagine you do too, but even if you do - drink another!

I'm trying to root out the info that I have in my head that triptans weren't as dangerous as first thought, so there wasn't a need to pump and dump for some time after taking them.... HERE is the thread. Thank goodness I didn't imagine it!

And there's MigGril with the same info - what a wonder!

Try emailing the Breastfeeding Network as well. There's a pharmacist there; Wendy Jones who got back to me pretty sharpish when I had some drug queries.

Another vote for the Breastfeeding Network. I have used the phone line a couple of times and found Wendy very helpful.

There another preventative you can take to i think its propanolol a beta blocker my gp was willing to prescribe it while i was pregnant. But lucky being pregnant and breastfeeding has the lucky side effect of reducing my migraine anyway.

Agree that dehydration is often a trigger and when your feeding you need to remember to drink more fluids anyway.

Thanks everyone, you've given me hope that I can carry on BF without migraines! (fingers crossed)

Propanolol doesn't work for me unfortunately. It did for a while but then stopped. In fact we've tried several beta blockers and they all work for 6 months or so then stop

Dehydration can contribute to my migraines but it's such an easy thing to solve that it rarely does anymore - I drink so much water!

Stress and tiredness are the worst for me. My neurologist warned me that I needed to be in a routine as much as possible with the baby to avoid the stress...not helped by DS being ill this weekend and then being really difficult to get to sleep these last few nights.

Stress is a killer for me two. But i think routine has little to do with it unless your a routine kind of person to start with. trying to relax and go with the flow helps. Odly enough although sleep would normal be an issue for me it's not been a huge problem with small children (and no mine haven't slept well). But breastfeeding may be helping in that department to as when you feed at night it release's sleep inducing hormones so helps you get back to sleep quicker. Co-sleeping has also help second time round for me as no getting up in the night.