How to move to formula without getting Mastitus

[Headlessbond]

I’m Day 14 of trying to breastfeed and I’ve had enough.
My child lost weight and is gaining very slowly. He has tongue tie. My nipples are in pain.
I stink of milk.
I have to do top ups using a cup which he finds hard drinking from so it goes down his top - my precious breast milk that I took a while to express.
I keep crying. This isn’t normal is it?
How do I switch successfully?

To stop breastfeeding you do need to taper it off otherwise you'll have issues. You can get antibiotics to treat mastitis but obviously you don't want to get to that stage.

However if you believe he has a tongue tie then it needs to be snipped sooner rather than later, regardless of how you choose to feed him.

If it's any consolation, your nipples will "harden off" in time and not hurt. In the meantime slather on lanolin ointment to help with recovery.

To echo above, be aware that tongue ties can cause issues with bottle feeding, not just breastfeeding. However I'm not sure how keen the NHS is on snipping tongue ties of babies who are exclusively bottle fed, so if I were you and there is reason to believe that your baby is struggling to transfer milk effectively due to a tongue tie I would look into getting that sorted ASAP before trying to stop breastfeeding.

Not necessarily, you aren't guaranteed to have issues. I have up day 5, I put on a tight bra, got the cabbage leave out and nurofen. They hurt for about 3 days then it got better, they did leak for weeks but just put pads in.
Don't let people force you to keep going if you've made your mind up.
I was very happy to give up, my husband helped out, I got more sleep and everyone was happier. My son also slept really well.
I am not saying there are not benefits to BF because there clearly are.

Anyway, hope you're okay! X

Oh God you poor thing. Definitely taper down. I had 3 kids with TT and at least 3 bouts of mastitis very unpleasant, mind yourself. I agree with the poster who suggested getting the TT snipped now or at least getting the ball rolling while BF. It affects bottle feeding too.

I don’t think my nipples ever hardened up but at 17 weeks my baby’s mouth/jaw had grown sufficiently where he wasn’t tearing my nipples open each feed but there were ongoing issues through the 2.5 years I fed him. His TT was snipped at 6 weeks.

TT can be an absolute nightmare. I only persevered on my 3rd child on the other two I gave up after 1 month of that level of pain. @Headlessbond do what is best for you and your baby.