Help! Wanting to stop breastfeeding but stuck!

[Red93]

After months of bad blockages, pain,blisters etc I finally decided I wanted to stop Breadtfeeding and move into the bottle. My boy is 5 months. I’ve been trying for last 2 weeks to gradually drop a feed every 3 days. Buy I’m struggling now with a) him fussing, crying and not interested in the bottle and b) lumps and blockages which mean I still seem to be nursing him and c) full heavy breast, which the only relief is to BF him.

How didyou quit when youve got a full on big supply (I think I do!) Blockahe issues and a fussy baby. Feel like I’m never going to get out of this cycle :(

Could you express and then you're in control of how often you do it and can slowly express less and less until you dry up. Then baby can have your milk still but from a bottle, you could then try mixing it with the formula to get them used to the flavour. Apparently beakers work best for babies who have been bf!

He might expect a breastfeed if he can smell you nearby. So try letting someone else give the first feeds. If someone else isn’t available to give the first bottle, you could try holding him in a different position, such as facing away from you.
Introduce the bottle when he isn’t fully awake: try when he is falling asleep or just waking up, while dozy and disoriented.
Offer different teats. He may prefer one material (rubber, silicone etc.) over another. Generally speaking, a slow flow teat is good to start with, since he might get overwhelmed by the volume let through by a fast flow teat.
Don’t wait until he’s hungry to try the bottle. Start earlierthan the scheduled feeding so he isn’t frustratedand starving when experimenting with the bottle.
Check the temperature of the milk. A common mistake is not warming it enough. Milk from the breast is 37ºC. Try different temperatures. Some babies may prefer a bottle cold or at room temperature.
Dip the teat in breast milk to give it a familiar flavour and to encourage him to suck.
Star with 50/50 expressed and formula milk to begin with and gradually increase the % of formula.

@Red93, how did you get on? I am going through the same! My boy is 5months old and I am desperate to stop breastfeeding as you did, got have had bad blockages, lumps, bleps.. the lot
Writting this message with very engorged breasts after expressing the feed I want to drop!
I've been drinking peppermint/sage tea, wide-teeth comb, massaging but still getting engorged! HELP

Hi there. It took about 6 weeks to fully come off. It was tough at first but then my body finally got the message.
My son was tongue tied - is yours? That was the problem. Even though it was fixed at 5 months I’d had enough and he really couldn’t feed well, hence all the problems.
Best advice for stopping - I dropped a feed every 3/4th day. This was the hardest in the early days as I was full, but don’t express to relieve the pain. It takes a while for your body to register and stop making so much milk. I was constantly full though as ghe wasn’t feeding right. I dropped about 2/3 day feeds - replaced by bottle - then started on the night time feeds. All the advice said drop day feeds first, but this is impossible if you’re feeding 7 times a night like I was! Slowly I started to decrease the night feeds with a bottle too. By around 4/5 weeks I was probably feeding him once in the day, before bed, and a night time feed if he was really upset. But I kept it short, just to soothe. Eventually he fed more from the bottle and was only having small feeds from the boob. I remember the last feed as he practically dismissed the boob one night so I knew it was over 😅 everything had calmed down and I wasn’t in pain.
Main advice- go slowly, add a bottle so he/she fills up on that and drop night as well as day feeds. You’ll get there! I Honestly never thought I would, but it’s possible. Let me know how you get on xx