Giving up breastfeeding

[MyPurpleHeart]

Looking for advice

I'm ready to give up breastfeeding. My DD is almost 11 months and I'm ready to stop now. I'm back at work so I only feed her twice a day, the other two feeds she has formula and is also eating lots of solid food.

A few times ive not been able to feed her for a day and its hurt so much, my boobs get swollen, red and itchy and leak. Its only made better when she feeds from me.

How do i stop safely without getting mastitis?

Thanykou!

Imo you just have to get through it. Massaging a bit in a hot shower worked.

My advice would be to give up as gradually as your situation allows. With my first I gradually cut down over a 4 month period so when he finally stopped it was very easy / natural feeling. My second fed loads no trouble then one day out of the blue when she turned 1 suddenly decided she was never doing it again and it was a killer! Would not recommend!

Are you able to leave 2 weeks between dropping each feed?

Try to feed for less time, initially - and gradually ramp down the duration. This will help give your supply time to drop back. I assume you know how to unlatch your baby by popping a finger into the corner of your mouth? So kick them off as soon as they've fed enough for you to be comfortable but before your breast is emptied. You'll have to figure out a way to deal with the potentially quite unimpressed baby though!

Drop one feed first, and then the second, for the same reason (and also because the hormone changes that happen with stooping breastfeeding can make you feel mopey or depressed - so best to have them happen as gradually as possible).

If you get engorged / sore, hand express or use a hand pump to relieve just enough milk to feel comfortable - but again, make sure not to empty your breast completely of milk.

Regularly leaving milk in your breast will gradually give your body the signals to drop back supply as it isn't needed anymore.

Good luck!

If you're in the UK, contact the National Breastfeeding Helpline UK on Facebook messenger. I had trouble stopping at 11.5 months but got some great, very specific advice from them and managed to avoid problems for both me and DS.

i had to stop breastfeeding straight away, and i had an over supply of milk, but what i did was, when my breasts got full, i just used to express using my hands straight into the breastmilk freezer bags, making sure to massage the areas that felt more full/bumpy and only until i felt COMFORTABLE, NOT empty. every time i felt a little pain, i would hand express again, and kwept doing this for about a week. dont express more than you have to, only when it starts getting painful. it took me a week, after that i was expressing once a day and after a week and a half it didnt hurt at all so i just stopped expressing all together

Thankyou all so much for your help!

Plan is to start wednesday, I have work commitments Tuesday and i dont want to be leaky.

I'm going to drop the evening feed and replace with a bottle, then in a week drop the morning feed and replace with a bottle.

I only feed twice a day around work anyway so hopefully shouldn't be too bad.

She's eating three meals a day and has 8 teeth, last night she bit my nipple and it bled like crazy. The cut opened up again when feeding her this morning. Ive loved feeding her but its time to stop now.

Wish me luck :)

Biting is no fun - hope you are healing up okay. I think (hope!) I've trained mine out of it after a few attempts prior to teeth with yelp, and immediately putting her down or passing to her dad and walking away. However she still goes for a playful nip at times just to test me - I follow the same response without the yelp! I think if she drew blood I'd be done with it too.

There is no need to feel like you have to explain or justify the end of your breastfeeding though - you'd done amazing to stick at it til she is fully weaned and at this point it is very much a "only if you both still want to" sort of thing. I remember another mum posting here that she'd felt better about weaning off the boob after seeing how sheep push and kick the lambs away from their teats as they get older!

One thing I would say is to think twice about transitioning to bottles, maybe try a sippy cup of cows milk, if she is eating so well? - I'm trying to get rid of the darn bottles as my daughter is a few month older, and it's making her ramp up breastfeeding again instead!! 🙃