advice please! I have abruptly stopped feeding my 2yo. will my boobs be ok left as they are?

[randomama]

Hi I hope you can reassure me.

DS (2) was on about 4-5 feeds a day. Last week I got mastitis so I upped the feeds to shift it but then I couldn't shake the resulting dehydration even though i was drinking at least 6 litres water every day. bleugh. I'm in the process of finishing off my phd and just couldn't cope with the dehydration headaches and feeling poorly anymore (why am I over explaining???!!! sorry!!!) so, on Wednesday, I just stopped.

we talked it through, had a farwell ceremony, i went away for 36 hours, he saw me this morning and we've hung out today but I've still not fed and don't intend to feed again. so far today he has asked for it quite few times but each time has quickly accepted the explanation that he's a big boy now and that mummy's milk's all gone and has easily been distracted by his new 'big boy london cup'. It's been entirely tear free and I think we'll both be fine emotionally.

what I want to ask is will my boobs be OK? They're huge at the moment and quite painful but I want the milk to disappear so I don't wanna milk myself off. do I need to do anything or would anything be helpful or should I just sit it out and the milk will disappear? don't wanna get mastitis again - is this a risk?

thanks in advance

xxx

I am currently stopping breastfeeding but to be honest, as I've had mastitis three times in the past year, I've been cutting down veeeerrry sloooowly (ie over about 6 weeks) as I was worried that if I stopped suddenly I'd get it again. My boobs have definitely adjusted gradually and now we are down to one feed every other day they don't get big at all.

I think mastitis is a definite risk so you could try expressing? By hand if you don't have a pump anymore? I think your breasts would gradually produce less milk if you expressed maybe once a day. In this way, the milk would disappear gradually, but as it is, they are expecting to be feeding a hungry boy several times a day!

Good luck with the PhD by the way too!

Take Ibuprofen immediately and do so for 48 hours. Express off any engorgement but no more and yes it will be fine. Best way to do this is in the bath, if you submerge your boobs the milk will probably escape with no help from you! And it's not going to spray on the floor (tis a bugger to remove from carpeting!)

I just had a similar experience although DD was 13 months. She got tonsillitis and went from 5-6 feeds in 24 hours to nothing.

For the first 2 days I pumped 2x day thinking she'd come back to it, then went down to once a day, then after a week I stopped bothering.

Boobs were sore and uncomfortable, got to their worst about day 3 after stopping pumping, then went down slowly. About a week later they randomly filled up again overnight but slowly went down.

Maybe you could taper off the pumping, especially having had mastitis so recently? I don't think it'll prolong things too much

Good luck and well done to you and DS - it sounds like you've both done fabulously

Thank you all so much for your advice and encouragement.
The good news is I've still not fed him (ha ha! I mean I have fed im obv but just not that way!). It's all gone really well. I got the tiniest bit of milk out just to ease things up a bit on Saturday but haven't needed more than that. They're still pretty full but I'm pretty sure it's on its way out.
Anyway, yes, thanks so much. Greatly appreciated.
K x

PS good luck with your mission wigeon! And I hope the mastitis stays away. It really is horrible eh?!