Skip to main content
Skip to main navigation
Skip to talk navigation

Active discussions

Please or to access all these features

Add post

Watch this thread

Save thread

Start a new thread

Unflip thread

Hide thread

My feed

Saved Active Unanswered threads

Getting started FAQ's

Unanswered threads Acronyms Talk guidelines

Hide shortcut buttons

Talk

Unflip

Get advice and support with infant feeding from other users here.

1 2 3

Get advice and support with infant feeding from other users here.

Infant feeding

Can you stop your milk coming in?

65 replies

babyhmummy01 · 14/07/2013 18:57

Due to medical reasons I will not be BF but am worried about my milk coming in - i am sure i read somewhere that there are meds that can be given to stop your milk coming in, is that true and if so how easy is it to arrange?

OP posts:

Report

babyhmummy01 · 15/07/2013 21:33

Haha thanks ladies, I very much appreciate the info...the first one you were prescribed fairylea is the one I had read about I think.

I need to see my GP to get my pain meds ready for after her arrival sorted so will ask them then, might as well see what they say.

OP posts:

Panzee · 15/07/2013 21:33

Bromocriptine, that's the one I had. About a weeks worth if I remember correctly.

Fairylea · 15/07/2013 21:11

Sorry..that was me getting confused. I've been on bromocriptine before and then dostinex. Different drugs. Oops. Long day with ds!

VinegarDrinker · 15/07/2013 20:48

Lots of misinformation on this thread. Dostinex is a brand of cabergoline. Cabergoline is routinely prescribed across the UK for the purposes of lactation suppression for medical reasons as well as in stillbirths and late miscarriages.

A one off dose (which is what is used) very rarely causes any side effects.

PeaceAndHope · 15/07/2013 19:49

HarderToKidnap

Do you have a source for that statistic? That 55% of women who take a few low doses of cab to stop breastmilk production report horrifying side effects?

Every medicine has side effects- it depends on the individual, the reason for taking it and the dosage prescribed.

By the way, I took the medicine only after approval from a doctor even though I bought it abroad.

A low dose of this medicine is prescribed in many countries to stop breastmilk. In fact it is even prescribed in the UK for women with miscarriages or stillbirths. That wouldn't happen if it was as dangerous as people make it out to be.

Budget cuts have nothing to do with withholding the dostinex- they could still hand out a prescription and make the woman buy her own medicine (as they do with many other forms of medication on the NHS).

MintTeaForMe · 15/07/2013 19:47

I was prescribed cabergoline to dry up my milk supply after three weeks of bf. I didn't suffer any side effects whatsoever. I also managed to get it on the NHS so am surprised to hear that they don't prescribe it. This would have been about a year and a half ago though, so maybe something's changed since then?

Fairylea · 15/07/2013 19:25

The cab does give you very nasty side effects - BUT this usually relates to taking it at a higher dose (ie 4 times a day for many weeks) like someone like myself with a prolactin secreting tumour would need. I have taken it. Ihad very bad side effects - skin peeling, tiredness like nothing else, hair falling out etc - almost like a smaller dose of chemotherapy which I suppose it was to some extent in order to shrink my tumour.

I then complained and got put on dostinex which is much newer and I found it fine. Normal prolactin levels are about 250, mine were 4000. With the dostinex it has come down to about 2000 at the moment. My consultant told me a breastfeeding woman is about 450ish. Not exact science.

If you took a one off dose of either I'm sure you'd hardly notice the effects at all except less milk.

sparklekitty · 15/07/2013 19:17

My friend is Spanish and she said in Spain when you decide to stop breastfeeding you go to the gp and they give you a pill to dry up the milk. Not sure it's available here though.

I know what you mean about meds and bfing though. I was told if I relapsed and went manic I would have to take meds incomparable with bfing. I've been lucky its not happened but its a no brainer really, better to be bottle fed and have a healthy mum.

If you can't get anything to dry the milk up I think ibruprofen is probably the best option, that's what my friend took when she decided not to bf, said it took about 3 days of discomfort for milk to dry up.

DoingTheSwanThing · 15/07/2013 19:11

It's only one dose given to prevent milk production, so not a matter of stopping it if it doesn't suit. I'm not sure what the incidence of nasty side effects is after the one dose, but I'm not aware of it being a particular problem.

valiumredhead · 15/07/2013 19:00

I never got brick hard boobs and my milk came in when I was 5 months pregnant! I used to have to sleep on a towel or the sheets would be soaking.

Panzee · 15/07/2013 18:55

I got prescribed something to stop the milk because it was causing rotten infections every time it collected. I'd had several abscesses and they kept refilling. Don't remember any side effects but I wasn't very well anyway so I could have had some!

(This was with child one, the peppermint incident was the second time round!)

HarderToKidnap · 15/07/2013 18:11

Lucky you peace, and I mean that quite literally... 55% of women who take cab report debilitating side effects. So you're in a lucky minority there. It's not prescribed freely to women who have had an SB or other sad outcome, it's sometimes prescribed for these women after a long chat about how awful you can feel on it.

I also think it not being prescribed any more because of budget cuts rather than pressure to bf. And because its unjustifiable to prescribe medication to hasten a normal process which will occur within a day or two anyway, especially when that medication is probably going to make you feel very unwell. Sounds like OP is on some pretty heavy duty drugs anyway so getting drugs sent from abroad when she won't know about drug interactions would be stupid.

Thurlow · 15/07/2013 17:23

Bluemonkey - I remember saying to DP, "have you ever wondered what I'd look like if I had a boob job?"

Bluemonkeyspots · 15/07/2013 17:10

I never bf any of my 4dc, my friend bf and made it look like the easiest thing in the world. I chose to ff and have no regretted it once, choice is a wonderful thing

I have massive breast (34j) so you can imagine what I looked like when they went brick hard! I never took my bra off even when in the shower, I just showered and washed with the old one on then quickly dried and put a clean one on when I got out.

PeaceAndHope · 15/07/2013 16:19

Also keep in mind that this medicine is given without question to women following an abortion/miscarriage/stillbirth. If it were that dangerous, then it wouldn't be prescribed at all.

The fact that it isn't prescribed to women with live babies should make it amply clear that they are subtly trying to encourage breastfeeding.

PeaceAndHope · 15/07/2013 16:16

I have taken cabergoline for hyperprolactinemia as a teen and then again after having children to stop the milk flow.

I had absolutely no side effects. If you look it up online, you'll see that birth control pills actually have more listed side effects then cabergoline.

Everyone reacts differently to medication and the medicine can always be stopped in case of a side effect.

Furthermore, in my mother's time women were freely prescribed this medication to stop milk flow and very few in my knowledge had any terrible reaction.

It should be a choice- the side effects should discussed openly and then it should be up to the woman to take the pills or not.

The whole idea behind stopping the practice of prescribing this medicine is to try and convince women to breastfeed and make formula feeding as difficult as possible.

Thurlow · 15/07/2013 15:36

I don't know about the drugs but I can say the pain of milk coming in only lasted a few days. I had two days of it being really quite painful and as others have said, the hard part is trying not to touch them in anyway and encourage milk production. I had a non-wired bar very, very tight, so tight I had strap marks over and under my arms, and by day 3 they were just uncomfortable, and then it went very quickly. If you can't get anything from the NHS to help then considering the other parts of you that ache etc after the birth, the swollen breasts weren't an overwhelming problem.

Shellywelly1973 · 15/07/2013 15:35

Hi op. I didn't feed some of my dc. My mum told me to wear tight bra, don't drink-even though you will be seriously thirsty & take paracetomal. Don't take your bra off unless showering& get it back on asap.

Best of luck. Don't stress...my 2 are in their 20's & absolutely fine.

Panzee · 15/07/2013 15:35

I think I accidentally stopped my supply when trying to cure trapped wind with peppermint capsules.

HarderToKidnap · 15/07/2013 15:25

Cabergoline is a horrible drug with dreadful side effects. And your milk coming in will only be uncomfy for a couple of days. A tight bra, pain relief and cold packs would be much better than intense nausea, diarrhoea, the shakes and sweats etc that you often get with cabergoline.

babyhmummy01 · 15/07/2013 15:16

Hmm, will speak to mw and see what she advises then.

OP posts:

valiumredhead · 15/07/2013 15:13

Yeah I asked for meds to dry my milk up and was told nothing is prescribed these days.

Don’t want to miss threads like this?

Weekly

Sign up to our weekly round up and get all the best threads sent straight to your inbox!

Email address

Log in to update your newsletter preferences.

You've subscribed!

PeaceAndHope · 15/07/2013 14:53

Hi there! I didn't breastfeed either- not because I couldn't, simply because I didn't want to.

Please ignore all the people who say "Are you sure you can't/don't want to?" They need to learn to answer the question asked or just mind their own business.

The medicine you want is cabergoline which is also prescribed to women with hyperprolactinemia.

NHS will NOT prescribe it to you. If you have any relatives living abroad who can get some of it for you, then that would be your best bet. (This is what I did).

The NHS philosophy is to make life as difficult as possible for women who don't breastfeed. So be prepared! I repeat- the medicine you want is cabergoline and they will definitely not prescribe it to you.

If you can't get your hands on the pills, then the only option is to wear a tight fitting bra and follow the other home remedies the previous posters have already described.

All the best!!

sunshine401 · 14/07/2013 22:41

I did not bf my youngest. The milk coming in was not at all a problem. Had big (Really big) boobs for the whole of a day no pain what so ever no leaks nothing. All was fine the next day. Just don't touch

babyhmummy01 · 14/07/2013 22:38

twatty thanks will bear it in mind!

Doingtheswanthing hadn't thought of a pre-emptive request - will speak to MW when i next see her

Dame thanks

OP posts:

Unflip

1 2 3

Please create an account

To comment on this thread you need to create a Mumsnet account.