sore boobs - 17 month old suddenly weaned

[janek]

hi, my 17mo dd suddenly took a notion to wean herself, cold turkey a fortnight ago, and at first my breasts felt normal (although i was and am bereft), but now they are starting to feel lumpy and sore.

is there anything i can do about this? am i going to get mastitis? or might she start again ?

thanks

You have a few choices:

You can keep offering, in the hope that she might take it up again, it is unusual for toddlers/babies to 'self-wean' before the age of 2yrs. In the meantime I would keep trying to express to stimulate the milk and relieve the engorged feeling.

Or you can just leave it and help the discomfort you are feeling by expressing every so often to relieve the engorgement. If they start feeling hot and uncomfortable and you start feeling unwell then you may ahve a blocked duct and should express on the painful side and take a trip to see your GP as it can lead to mastitis.

Keep offering though, it may just be a nursing strike. Good luck.

thank you. i was thinking nursing strike, i really don't want to stop feeding her, i've recently gone back to work and i loved that i could still feed her when i get home. also, she has only relatively recently started to even like feeding - when it was her only form of sustenance it used to make her scream. she's a funny one.

but now she gets furious when i offer and arches her back in the wrong direction. also, she was biting me before she stopped - was that cos the milk tasted funny? she didn't want it any more? she felt like a nip and didn't appreciate being told off for it?

i don't know whether to give up now and hope the milk goes away (and possibly regret it till i find something else to worry/feel guilty about) or keep prolonging the agony in the hope that she comes back to it.

how long can a nursing strike last, if that is what it is?

It's funny that you say she used to scream. Have you ever found out the reason for it? Thrush can sometimes cause pain (for you and your baby) and can make them reluctant to feed.

It seems as though you would really like to carry on breastfeeding and there are several things I will suggest to you. Firstly, she may be anxious about being told off for 'nipping' and this has put her off a bit.

I would try to re-introduce breast-feeding again by stealth and through fun games. Offer her your breast when she is sleepy, either just going off to sleep or when she has woken up.

Keep it lighthearted and make a game out of it at other times by going bare chested and tickling her with your boobs. My DS laughs when I come out of the shower and swing my breasts in his face!

Don't put any pressure on her to feed during the day. If she does nip you, I know it hurts but just release the suction and don't say anything. Put her down and try again later.

Keep expressing to keep up your supply, try taking the herb 'Fenugreek', eating lots of porridge oats, look at this website kellymom and arrange to see a breastfeeding councillor.

Please don't feel bad if your DD doesn't take it up again. You have fed her for 19months and that is really fantastic! Just take it each day as it comes and try and not to get wound up about it. XX

i never really found out what her problem was, and i don't think it can have been thrush because the problem went away, but she was 15 weeks before i could feed her without her having a massive paddy first. After that she just accepted it was the way she was fed. and then from about 13 months she seemed to really like the idea, until i objected to being bitten. but if i'd known it was going to turn out like this i would never have been so vocal.

the trouble is she eats well (not really a problem i know!!!) and likes to drink like her big sis from a cup.

i don't really think she'll go back to it to be honest, i just have to come to terms with it and hope i don't get boob-rot. thank you so much for vindicating my nursing strike theory though. everyone else i've mentioned it to just says 'oh she's growing up' or 'it's natural' or 'she doesn't need it any more', i'm really glad someone else thinks it's a bit sudden too!

janek I know you don't want to hear this - apologies in advance - but like your dd, my ds very suddenly weaned himself at 18m (went from 5x a day to none in under a week!) and my breasts were all big and tender... took a while to figure out I was quite pg! Don't mean to give you a heart attack, but thought it might be worth a mention

thanks, but i can't be. i have a mirena, it would be extremely awful if it had failed. also my boobs aren't big, they're just lumpy. i did wonder about that and then dismissed the idea as too awful to contemplate. i just awaiting some kind of confirmation mentruation...