How to stop your breast milk

[PinkSpots1994]

Hi guys so my baby is 3 weeks and I've decided not to give him breast milk anymore, how do I stop my breasts from producing milk? Thank you x

You basically have to start reducing the supply/demand.

If your baby was feeding every 3 hours then start skipping one - every day drop another feed. You'll still need to breastfeed in between though as you can't just shut off the supply.

If your boobs start to feel hard and sore then pump off the excess - I used to do it in the shower/after a hot bath as naturally they'll leak.

I breastfed twins for 10 weeks. Took me a week then to wean them fully on to formula

You need to slowly reduce breast breast feeding by a feed every couple of days to prevent you getting blockages and mastitis which can make you very ill. Breast milk is made to meet supply so as you feed less your body will make less milk and then will eventually stop making any.

You don’t have to share but can I ask why you want to stop? I stopped feeding DD1 at 6 weeks because she never got a good latch, I had supply issues (I had spent a lot of time in hospital with spesis) and I just didn’t get the right advice. I ended up exclusive bf DD2 due to her allergies. I think the sweet spot would have been combi feeding but I’m not having a third to try that theory.

If you don't have too much supply, then it will dry up naturally by itself without too much bother. If you're very engorged then you can try expressing a very small amount, just enough to relieve the pressure, but in my experience, that's just mastitis waiting to happen. If you're struggling, you can ask your GP to prescribe something to dry up your milk.

I had to stop breastfeeding cold turkey at 11 months.
The first few days I expressed 3 times a day until my boobs no longer felt full.
Then a few days of expressing once until they didn't feel full. They I had a few days of not feeling engorged.
Then my boobs went really painful and a massaged each of the ducts that were sore until they didnt hurt any more this was about 5 days. That was it and my boobs shrank.

By express I did a mix of manual pump and hand expressing, hand expressing more than covered the need especially as you are doing it for comfort rather than needing the get milk out!