how to stop BF without the painful boobs

[emz31]

Have finally managed to get my 6mo DS onto the bottle after 5 months of trying-woo hoo!!however, i now want to stop BF altogether but not sure how to do it. i only did 2 bfs yesterday and woke up this morning like pamela anderson, really painfully engorged boobs. had to express 9 ozs off, but realise that this will only encourage production when i want to stop it - how do i go about this or do i have to put up with a few days of really painful boobs?

Hi emz31. I stopped bf my son at the same time and I have to say it was sore for a while. I just fed him once in the morning (found that was the worst time) for a few weeks. After a few days, it settled down. I stopped feeling sore and engorged as my body got used to the single feed.

When I eventually stopped altogether, it was fine.

Don't know if there's a better way of doing it, but HTH!

Express just enough to relieve the engorgement. You should find it doesn't take long for your body to realise it doesn't need to produce milk any longer.

emz31how did you manage the bottle in the end? My DD is 5 months and been trying cups and bottles for 4 months. She takes an oz then (politely mostly)refuses anything more until i feed her. I've decided i want to switch now and due back to work in 3 weeksarrrghh.

by complete fluke moongirl! have been trying since he was 8 weeks old and spent a fortune on bottles but he just used to scream the place down. he's on 3 meals a day now and takes a little water with meals through a beaker, but basically, i bought the MAM anti colic bottle with softflow teat and left him with his dad for the afternoon (so i wasn't tempted to whip out a boob when the going got tough!) and when i came back he'd taken 9 ozs like a dream - not even bothered about boob now! - so, don't know wether it was the new bottle or just that he was ready to take it - also, psychologically, i was ready to give up, whereas before i think deep down, i still wanted him to BF. hang in there, if my stubborn little monkey can do it then i'm sure you'rs will.
HTH

The only way not to get sore boobs is to gradually reduce by one feed at a time with a few days inbetween. Do you need to stop immediately or can you scale down over a couple of weeks?

have only been giving him 2 feeds a day am and pm, cut out am yesterday and am cutting out pm tonight - DS was always a boob man so just want it over and done with so he knows where he is really. my boobs are killing me though and as i type am sitting here with 2 cabbage leaves in my bra - highly attractive and don't think it's helping but any other advice to relieve the pain would be most welcome! ta.

You could express for relief when needed. Expressing does not stimulate the breast to produce milk as much as the baby does. Don't give him any feeds at all. I would give him the EBM though - should never be wasted.