Stopping bf for a 16mo all of a sudden

[Friginilla]

Its just that really,

ds is a keen fan of the boob he does only get it at night but this is where out predicament comes in.

DS is not a good sleeper so we have kind of used boob to our advantage where he'll breast feed to sleep at night and then come in to our bed around 1-2 AM and co sleep, feeding as and when he likes which has suited us perfectly with us both working until now!

I have been perscribed antibiotics that I can't feed DS while taking. this issue didnt even occur to me whilst at the docs as I was so ill when i went in and i need to finish this course of antibiotics (which run into late next week)

DS has always been a bottle/dummy hater so trying to even attempt to give him one of these is out of the question, it'll do the opposite of settle him which is the only reason we need it anyway!

DP has gotten DS to sleep initially in the past so we're fine with this i hope, its the constant waking in the night and screaming for breast later in the night that I'm getting nervous about!

I've been daft really and should have thought of this scenario before we sunk in to this rut routine

Does anyone have experience of this type of situation? Or has anyone got any ideas of how we can play this from here?

Oops, thats quite a post, hope you can make it through, I didn't want to drip feed

Hi Friginilla I am in the same position with 16mo DS. Absolutely no clue so shamelessly piggybacking in search of advice!

Are you sure you can't feed him? I had antibiotics a while ago, dr said fine for bf. When I read the leaflet in them it said not to, but I double checked with a dr and pharmacist and they agreed it was fine.

What antibiotics are they?

Hope you feel better soon

YokoUhOh thats absolutely fine, i have my fingers crossed.

changedirection thank you, I'm sure i'll be right in no time, Its penicillin, we asked a pharmacist today and they were non committal, said it might not do any harm but just advised us to stop bf until we checked with the doctor.

Despite my essay i did miss the point that DS is on amoxicillin at the moment too so I'm slightly concerned about dosage issues etc.

I'm sure there's a BFing and medications helpline. Might not be open at the weekend, but I can't imagine it would be a huge issue. I was on antibiotics for mastitis almost continuously for the last eight months I fed DS (til 17 months). All he had was the odd runny poo and one mild case of oral thrush, which he didn't pass to me thank Christ, neither of which bothered him in the slightest.

Here you go:

wj.pdf Penicillin is not a problem

Don't worry about him taking it as well. Not enough passes into BM to affect the dose he's taking.

Hmm. That link might be broken. Here is the web page that has the PDF I was trying to link you to, 'Antibiotics and Breastfeeding'.

If in doubt, email this lady - a qualified pharmacist and breastfeeding supporter. She can advise which meds are safe and suggest alternatives.

[email protected]

I'm sure you can find an alternative antibiotic.

However...my DS was 15mo and bfing at nights when I had to have an operation.

DH took charge at night for 3 nights, we went cold turkey, and I stayed away to avoid confusing things. I think it was harder for me with engorgement etc.

He screamed a whole lot less than we anticipated.

A week or so later, after the operation, I tried offering the breast to DS and he giggled and pushed me away.

In retrospect, I worried a lot more about it than I needed, he adapted quite well.

I am BF on penicillin as we speak. GP says is fine.

So don't worry about that.

You can keep worrying about DS not wanting to sleep on his own too much if you like

I'll have a click on the link now thank you!

OhGood i was just hoping that one day i would put ds to bed at 8 and we'd all wake up one morning at 6am wondering how the heck that happened and carry on from there wishful thinking maybe?

I was wondering if this was our opportunity to tackle the sleep issue, i might just see how it goes tonight and work from there.

Has any of this helped you at all YokoUhOh ?

We night weaned around then. I kept DS in bed with me but strictly no boob. Like You, I had about three nights of rage, but he went back to sleep more quickly each time than I had anticipated. It reduced the night wakings, but didn't fix them. He's 22 months now and after a few weeks with a sleep consultant we seem to be getting somewhere.

He still seems wistful for boob at times, though. If he's cranky or cuddly or tired he'll still sometimes reach inside my top and start trying to mouthe my boob through my top. I shall be watching with interest when he sees his little brother (arriving in August) being BFed!

*Like NormHonal, sorry. Not You.

Quick update, after the farce that was last night, we have decided i'll feed ds through the penicillin and see how he gets on (like most of you have said I'm sure he'll be fine)

we'll book a seperate week to tackle the seperate issue of sleep when we're all back to normal, health wise (she hopes) and have the buffer of nursery childcare to help us me and DP catch up on sleep in the day.