How to stop milk supply

[Melonballs1]

I was pumping every 2 hours to supply enough for my newborn getting around 2 oz each time and it taking half an hour. I’ve decided to switch to formula. It’s day 1 and I’ve gone cold turkey but pumped for 5 minutes this morning and this afternoon to relieve some pressure and cut down gradually. Both times I’ve pumped for 5 minutes I’ve got 3 oz of milk which is more than I’ve got when pumping for half an hour. Should I just not pump at all how do I cut down. I’ve been leaking through my breast pads all day even when changing them. I
really want my milk to dry up as quickly as possible.

I’ve had a very traumatic birth and wasn’t getting any sleep as was pumping or feeding my stitches are also not great and I’ve told to rest. Pumping was making me so miserable I just want my milk to stop

I'm sure I've read somewhere to wear a tight bra and put cabbage on ya boobs. But please be careful. You don't want to give yourself mastitis

I’m trying to prevent mastitis by pumping a little bit each day and slowly winding down

Sorry you've had a poor experience and I think 2 hourly pumping is just not sustainable, especially after a traumatic birth.

You'll be getting more as you're pumping less times so milk builds up but this will set up a negative feedback loop which will decrease your supply longer term. I found my supply didn't properly drop until I accepted a base level of pain and engorgement when I stopped pumping following a nursing strike at 4 months. But be careful to avoid mastitis, it's a fine line. Up the pumping temporarily if any signs and work on the blockage.

How far postpartum are you? As if you've been pumping 2hourly for 2-3 days it will likely slow down quicker than if a week or more in, as supply won't be as fully established.

I found cough meds made a major difference to my supply quickly, you need something that contains pseudoephedrine - from Google: A single 60 mg dose of pseudoephedrine can decrease milk production by 24% over 24 hours. Only do this if you're completely set on stopping though as would be hard to recover supply again. Were you trying to exclusively pump or get back to breastfeeding direct?

Also I did similar reducing the number of minutes each pump and then also the number of times until was just a hand express to work on lumps in my morning shower. Took a couple of weeks I think to get to that point. Didn't help that I had really ramped up the pumping ahead of stopping to try exclusively pump - I honestly don't know how mums do that tbh!

Recommended by health visitor many years ago to wear a tight bra & take Epsom salts in warm water. It's a laxative & it worked for me.

I’m not sure about going cold turkey; I did it by cutting a feed out every couple of days to slowly send my body the message that milk isn’t needed.