Stopping breastfeeding

[Ellaroo]

Hello! I stopped breastfeeding my 16 month old baby last week having gradually cut down on her feeds over the last 3 months. Could anyone tell me how long it will be until my breasts are not full of milk. None of it seems to be draining away! Does anyone know if taking water retention tablets would help get rid of the excess milk???
Many thanks in advance.

took mine about 6 weeks to return to find their new normal state - it's taking me longer though to get used to that as normal

I cut breastfeeding out very quickly as my baby had no difficulties taking formula from a bottle. It took my breasts about 4 weeks to be completely 'normal' - they need a lot more support now!!!

Oh gosh! I hadn't been expecting it to be that long! Did they go down gradually, or just disappear one day? Does anyone know about the water retention tablets???? Thanks.

I found that mine were fine straight away, as ds cut down on b/f so slowly. It took a good few months for the size of them to go back to normal, and it has only been in the last two minths that I have been able to buy a bra and know that it will fit me in 6 months! Sorry, don't know about the water retention tablets, but I would ask my gp if I were you.

Absolutely NO to water tablets - will make no difference to the milk you have but will make you run to the toilet. The milk will gradually disappear - try not to keep expressing drops to see if is still there because then you are stimulating production. Can take months to completely go but you should become less conscious of it over the next few weeks.

I want to stop breastfeeding my 19 month old ASAp. This Saturday would be nice as I;m off to Paris for a hen night and it'll be the first time I;ve left her! She's going through a bad sleeping patch at the moment: waking a couple of times a night and of course the only way to get her back to sleep is, you guessed it, by feeding her. I'm not serious about stopping by Saturday, but the only way I can see her stopping is if I just refuse any more boobs. She is totally obsessed and regularly grabs hold of my top and shouts bobo at the top of her voice. I can usually distract her, but sometimes she goes bananas and it's easier to give in. I breastfed her sister (who's now 9) until about 2.5 - 3 and it became a battle of wills. Is it possible to stop gradually with a babe so devoted to the boob?

i've heard to allow one week per dropped feed but I don't where I heard that.

I stopped feeding four days ago and boobs are still big and a bit achy (especially right one) - does anyone know if it's possible to get infected ducts at this stage (although I don't think it's that bad yet)?

Also someone told me that the GP can give you tablets to dry up the milk - is that water retention thing?

PS: I felt really wierd giving up - felt a bit sad that was the end of an era and then massivley liberated that was the main source of my baby's food! Did anyone else feel like that?

Tongy, that's exactly how I felt. I stopped breastfeeding at 10 months. I had intended to go much longer, but DD weaned herself. She actually cut out one feed per week on her own. I was definitely sad, but liberated too. My boobs seemed normal right away (saggy, but not flowing).

Tongy, I understand completely how you feel. I 'officially' stopped feeding my third child about 10 days ago (he is almost 19 months) but felt so bereft that a few nights ago I fed him to sleep without telling anyone! He is probably my last child which makes me sad in lots of ways, although I see a lot of logic in it too. my breasts are still quite full,although for the last 3 months, I have just been feeding at night.

Hi Tinyfeet and Oxocube,
Am not looking forward to the saggy boobs although as boobs are so full at the moment it feels like a terrible waste of good milk!! Have just given the last bottle feed of the night and am hoping that tonight will be the night that she finally sleeps through - I thought may be she would sleep better if she was bottlefed but so fat that doesn't seem to be the case!

Oxocube, can totally understand the feeding in secret thing! This is my second baby and probably the last - I have been sorting through her firstborn clothes, to make space, and am not sure if can bring myself to actually get rid of any yet - seems so final! But am also aware that am looking forward to getting a bit of "me" back eventually and doing something outside of fulltime "mothering"!

Am off to bed now! (am in Brussels so am an hour ahead).

joaniec - here's another thread on the topic www.mumsnet.com/Talk?topicid=1364&threadid=172&stamp=011207141630

I think the main problem for you as it was for me was not the physical but the psychological one for the child. My dd was addicted to "ninny" and never took a bottle. In the end the only thing that worked for us was the equivalent of sleep training technique. I had to make sure someone else bathed and put her to bed - for about two weeks - changed the routine, so she had a story and a drink and biscuit in place of a feed and put her down awake and then someone else had to do sleep training if she wouldn't go to sleep. Same goes for nightime waking . It's not fair on either of you if it's you that goes in to her. Do you have a dp, or parent who would do a few nights? in my experience night time sleep training only takes about three days, so maybe it's fortuitous that you won't be around Sat night, that's one night done already. Be prepared yourself though for achy boobs and having to hand express in the shower a bit (though at that age, probably not that much) and for that mixture of elation and sadness that other folks talk about - it's great to be free but I really grieved when ds weaned himself at 13 months (they're all so different) and seriously considered resurrecting the job of wet nurse!