Stopped BFing, but how long until my milk goes?

[Novia]

Hi there,

my DD turned one last week and after a gradual reduction in BFing (just morning and night for the last few months) I decided to stop as she now (happily) takes a bottle of cow's milk morning and night instead (and has done for the last few weeks).

Luckily she seems fairly happy with the arrangement and hasn't looked for my milk since I stopped (about 5 days ago).

I was wondering how long it takes for my milk to go though? It's been almost a week now and my boobs feel normal (not engorged) and I still have milk. I've read that they can gets hard and hot and painful, but I can't see any sign of my milk going at the moment.

Has anyone any experience of this and how long it might take?

Thanks.

I was only feeding for about 10seconds a day by the time ds was 20mo but I could still get milk out at least 6months later. No leaking or mastitis etc tho.

Thanks - wow, that's a long time! Maybe because supply has been decreased so gradually, my body hasn't worked out that it's finished...

You'll probably have milk for a few weeks and then it will eventually turn back into colostrum and dry up completely. Hard to say when this will happen but I don't think you're likely to get engorgement and mastitis if you've stopped gradually, it would have happened by now.

I still get milk and it's been about 6 months since I stopped.

I suddenly stopped bf 9 months ago (DS self weaned) and can still get milk if I hand express now. Nothing to worry about.

Think the hot hard and painful boobs more applies when stopping feeding a baby thats having a lot of milk, when I stopped feeding my dc and he was 11 months I had no problems

Months for me too, but no pain or engorgement.