How to stop comfort nursing?

[Amtheyest17]

Hello,

I’m about to start weaning my 3 week old off of the breast for various reasons, just wondering if anyone knows how I tackle the comfort nursing? We do currently give her 1-2 bottles a day which she takes but she seems to always want to comfort nurse after, because I’m stopping due to BFing being really painful, sadly it’s not really something I want to continue if possible. Any ideas or tips?

Sucking for comfort is very normal and natural for babies of that age so could need replace your nipple for a dummy. She’s only little and already takes a bottle so hopefully this shouldn’t be too hard, just keep trying, try different types or the ones where you can put your finger in to wiggle around I found most popular with my children who were breastfed

I know it feels like hell now and you are desperate for a rest but it is completely normal, can she have a dummy? Honestly these days pass so slowly but the years fly by. She is still so so tiny - I would just let her do it as she is Brian my winding herself and helping her digestion.

Hi hun, just to say give it few more days, it will not be always painful trust me. I was afraid of this too as it felt horrible at the beginning, i always been super sensitive there, but now at only a month it doesnt feel painful at all so it should ease for you too very soon x

Or ask your midwife to check if latch is good

You'll need to find another way to provide your baby with the comfort and reassurance she gets from being at the breast. If you're totally set on giving up BF rather than trying to address the problems, I'd just stop (make sure you hand express frequently to avoid mastitis) and then work on settling your baby other ways. That could be something artificial like a dummy, or it could be a more organic source of comfort, like rocking/cuddling/singing etc.

Thanks for all the responses! Will try a dummy - giving it a couple of times today and seemed to have worked!

Stopping as she had a tongue tie which we got cut (privately) and she still doesn’t have full mobility of her tongue - investigation and potential fix on the NHS will take up to 6 weeks. I can’t continue for that long and don’t want to put her through cutting again for my own comfort - I thought I could push through but today the pain has gotten horrendous. It’s a shame as it got so much better (no more soreness or cracking) but with two days of cluster feeding, just can’t do it anymore! :(

Have you tried a nipple shield? They really help with tongue-tied babies and give you an extra layer if you're sore.

I used lanisoh nipple shields and they were a godsend. I’m still breastfeeding at 20 months!! I just used the shields til I could get the tongue tie sorted. I also used silver nipple healing cups which were absolutely incredible. I went from nearly losing a nipple to them being healed up. The silver cups were £40 from Amazon. Worth every penny.
I think it’s good to have options but I’m definitely not trying to encourage you to keep feeding if you don’t want to! The above tools made it possible and even easy for me to carry on breastfeeding, so I did.

Have you had breast feeding support worker come and help with latch? I would do that before stopping- it is so good for their brain development so I would persevere if you can.

@Amtheyest17 how's it going now? X

@toogoodforthisworld So the breastfeeding pain has dramatically improved (apart from the initial latch - ouch) she is even getting herself on and reattached BUT I had an oversupply which dramatically disappeared overnight so her feeds have now really increased to an hour across both boobs & she pulls on and off. So still exclusively breastfeeding and also giving a dummy - I think this has made the comfort sucking worse tbh as she now doesn’t get ‘milk drunk’ and just sucks, and sucks and sucks…