How to dry up breast milk supply after pumping

[Stanos21]

Hey. Wondered if anyone could help.

Baby is 9 days old. Wouldn't latch in hospital although wanted to breastfeed. As such, was on formula at the beginning but decided to exclusively pump and started to build up a stash for the fridge to remove formula. This created a bit of an oversupply for me and I'm now producing quite a bit.

Fast forward a few days and I'm miserable. I feel really low, a bit useless we weren't able to get her to breastfeed properly, very overwhelmed and all I seem to do is cry and it's having a huge impact on me. So I've made the difficult decision to stop pumping and just go back to formula.

However, I'm unsure how now to stop. My boobs are ridiculously full all the time. I don't want to just keep pumping because that'll increase my supply and keep producing more but if I stop, I've never been in so much pain and I'm worried about clogged ducts etc.

I can't sleep, I feel like I'm living with two bricks on my chest and it's unbearable. I'm struggling with what to do.

Any tips?

Thank you
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Has she been assessed for tongue tie? My baby wouldn’t latch either and after six weeks I had her checked privately. We breastfeed now.

Has your area got an infant feeding team? Might be worth giving them a call for support?

I just pumped off the bare minimum to stop the pain and other than that didn't touch them. I've also heard of people taking Sudafed to dry them up

Mine dried up very quickly but I had an undersupply rather than oversupply so I imagine that made it easier

I’m in France where it’s very common to stop breastfeeding at 3 months when maternity leave ends. The midwives told us in antenatal classes to allow about 3 weeks for the weaning off breastfeeding/onto formula process. This is to avoid pain and mastitis. You drop one feed every three days, ideally one feed a week but that would take a couple of months. Pumping is the same. Going from multiple pumping sessions to zero is a recipe for pain and mastitis. When your boobs are full of milk and it’s painful then try expressing just enough off to get them to feel soft and not engorged.

kellymom.com/bf/pumpingmoms/pumping/weaning-from-pump/ This site might help! Loads of breastfeeding and pumping info here.

I had a similar situation and was told I just had to leave them for a couple of days. It wasn't nice because they really hurt when touched but they emptied away by day three I think. Good luck!

You poor thing, this was exactly me a few months ago (ended up on antibiotics for mastitis) and I was in agony, there is no pain like it. I was told so many different things by different midwives and health visitors but what finally worked was just stop doing anything. Don't pump at all, nothing. Put on a tight cotton bra and do not touch them at all, try not to even let water touch them in the shower and wear a bra morning and night until they go down. Plus, take all the painkillers you can and after a few days they'll be better.
You're not useless, you're just exhausted and hormonal. I found once I'd made the decision to stop pumping and go full time with the formula things got much easier. Don't beat yourself up. Good luck, in a few days you'll feel so much better and your baby will have a happy mummy thanks to pain free boobs!

Congratulations on your newborn, often the first few weeks are really tough as you are discovering and your milk supply suggests that you have amazingly done well. I would second checking if you have an infant feeding team able to make life easier.

If however you really want to stop, please do this gradually remove one pump session at a time and only take off the minimum amount to keep your breasts comfortable. If you just stop you will develop mastitis of that I am sure .

I had the same issue op, I exclusively pumped until ds was 4.5 months old but it is HARD beyond belief. I totally understand your struggle, it is constant and it is draining. And only gets worse the more they eat.

I just started slowly reducing pumping sessions, so I pumped 8 times a day and dropped to 6 for a few days, then to 4 for a few days and so on. It worked really well for me.

Good luck op, you've done so well for trying. Moving my ds to formula was the hardest thing as I really didn't want to, but he is 6.5 months now and absolutely fine and I actually get time to play with him cos I'm not pumping every 5 minutes. Xx

Thank you everyone.
She isn't tongue tied, just wouldn't latch after lots of attempts and to be honest, I'm too exhausted with it now to try again 😟

We do have an infant feeding team but they're very pro breast. And after investing in nipple shields, two breast pumps, milk bags etc it's cost me a fortune and I am just so unhappy so I just don't want to keep going. I very rarely give up with anything but this I just can't continue. My little girl has a really irritable mummy who doesn't want to hug her at the minute because boobs are too sore.

I'm going to try the cabbage leaves. My midwife who I spoke to this morning said to try avoid pumping if possible and just trying to have a warm bath to see if they relieve.

I am a little worried about mastitis but if I keep pumping like I did last night to relieve them, I feel like I'm going round in circles and it'll never end. I might just have to keep an eye if anything develops.

With all this covid stuff, we were never able to to to classes to understand this. I feel like I went in completely blind and now I've done myself no favours 😟 how exhausting.

I'm hoping they relax in the next few days and dry up without any issues. I really don't want to become unwell with it. I just want to feel normal again and enjoy my newborn.

Thank you all again for your suggestions. I will try them all! Xx

Hand express off just enough to soften slightly and stop them feeling so sore. Please don't just go absolutely cold turkey, that's how to get mastitis.

And, you're warned not to take decongestants like sudafed if BF in case it dries your milk up. So that might be worth a try.

But, at only 9 days, it's definitely not too late to try again if you did want to try BF. Have you tried either the helpline or contacting an ILCBC directly. Just saying this as pumping is the worst of both BF direct and Bottle feeding