Ex Long term / tandem breasfeeders - help!

[foxcote90]

Hi there,
I have two children and over a 4 year period I consecutively fed them (both for 2.5 years, with a year overlap in between). Towards the end I was only feeding once a day / once every other day so not loads.

However it's now been 6 months and my milk hasn't dried up completely, and my hair is still falling out more than usual and I feel my hormones are still a bit all over the place 🙈

So would love to know from anyone who was in a similar situation, how long does it take to even out? Feeling impatient to get my body and brain back to normal again 😩

I hate to tell you this, but I still had milk or colostrum at least 5 years after giving up breastfeeding (bf 4 years overlapped for 6 months then the younger one weaned herself and the older one kept going)

I breast fed for much less time than you with no overlap and I still had milk over a year after I weaned my youngest. 😬

I'm the exact opposite. I breastfed my DC continuously for nearly 6 years and when the youngest self weaned I barely noticed it. I never checked whether I was still producing milk afterwards but I didn't get engorged or anything so I assume not. It was a very gradual process so I don't recall actually stopping if that makes sense?

5 years wow! I can't really answer your question but following with interest. I fed for almost 8 years across 2 children (only a few weeks overlap). I never had excess milk after the early days (could never pump). My breasts haven't really changed since stopping 6 months ago and I wonder if they will later on.

Yes I breast fed two children for a long time and tandem fed. I have milk 8 months after my youngest stopped.
I'm an over producer of milk tho which has been a problem throughout.
I'm always amazed when people say their milk dried up in a week or two.

I fed 4dcs one after the other, 26 months for number 3 whilst pregnant with number 4. Last baby couldn't latch due to a tongue-tie and I spent 9 months exclusively pumping every 3hrs and taking all the galactagogues under the sun. That baby is 8 (years old!) and I recon I could still feed a hungry infant now 😳.

@AnotherVice 😮
Exaggeration? Or literally could feed a baby!?.🤯
Don't you ache or leak? 👀

@foxcote90 im just double checking you have been checked out by a GP as excessive hair loss and galactorrhoea can be signs of thyroid problems. Pregnancy is often a trigger for thyroid issues.

Thank you, that's really kind to check. I have actually been checked for all sort of bloods etc due to another issue and they said it all came back normal x

Blimey! How long would you say it took for your hormones to feel like they'd evened out and returned to normal (if you can even remember what that felt like, not sure I can 🙈)

Yes this was me too. Apart from a bit of engorgement and the feeling of leaking (but not actually) in the month after stopping, I haven't had any issues with leaking but I was always overproducing in the early days.

Won't keep my hopes up for it ending anytime soon then! Just wish I felt like the hormones were returning to normal if not the milk drying up!

You get an injection that stops milk production. Very simple. They give them to women who don't attempt to breastfeed after birth.

I was BFing & or pregnant for over a decade and I could easily express milk for over a year after my last weaned.

The hormonal upheaval of stopping BF was huge for me, I felt out of sorts & really weepy/anxious for a couple of months. I hope you feel more yourself soon 💐

Exaggeration? Or literally could feed a baby!?.🤯
Don't you ache or leak? 👀
Slight exaggeration, but I could probably get an ounce or two out! I do feel full sometimes but then it subsides.
Wrt hormones etc....I couldn't really say. The feeding difficulties lead to PND and it's all a bit of a blur. Ironic really!

I breastfed to 4.5. DS has now finally gone down to stopping but does feed irregularly and he still gets milk. Health visitor said I should expect milk for another year

Pretty sure they don’t do this injection anymore. Or not routinely. I think they discovered a link with excessive postpartum bleeding or something.

Have you tried eating sage? I remember reading that it was really important not to eat sage when bf as it would cause production to stop. The leche league person was very keen that I should avoid the sage and onion stuffing at Christmas. LOL

I stopped feeding youngest about 2.5yr ago, after 3.5 yrs. I don’t remember when things felt normal hormonally, but I don’t remember any symptoms like hair loss, for me that was only in the initial postnatal period. But like others I can still produce some milk if I check, in fact a few months back I got a blocked duct! It took almost a month to properly clear and I was expressing gunky milk out while massaging it through.

I was pregnant or breastfeeding for about 6 years. It took around 3 years to dry up completely afterwards. That was after a long wind down too, had only been breastfeeding once a day for some time before stopping. Thought it would never go away!

My youngest is 15 and I can still express a sort of thick colostrum type stuff, which I assume would do the trick to tide over a grandchild in an emergency back in the days when that might be needed for survival.

Yep, I still have milk nearly a year after stopping feeding my youngest (she’s almost 4). And my hair is still shit.

I like to think of it as a secret superpower though. You know how you sometimes see photos of female police officers or firefighters or whoever breastfeeding babies who aren’t theirs when there has been some kind of disaster and their mother is too sick/injured to feed? I often think ‘at least if there was a terrible earthquake I could still breastfeed a starving infant’ 😂

@MovingTooFast121 🤣🤣

I bf my youngest til 5 and I think my milk went in the last couple of months as she told me she wasn’t getting anything. My youngest I bf til 2.5 and same thing happened.
Bf doesn’t make hair fall out that’s more of a pregnancy thing so I’d see GP for tests. Hormones level out a long time ago when you’ve bf for ages. Bf for long periods is normal for our bodies.

This thread is fascinating me. I breastfed 2 babies back to back for 2 years in total, stopping around a year ago, and I can still get small amounts of milk if I try. I thought I was weird! Glad to know it's quite common.

Funny you say that, I've heard from lots of people that supposedly grandmothers can technically feed their grandchildren (I assume some kind of evolutionary benefit) so maybe this is actually normal...