Time to End Breastfeeding

You will have to gradually scale back the pumping. Cut out one pumping session a day for a few days and then another for a few days and so on until you are done. If you just stop altogether you will become really engorged and that will be painful. Good luck.

I would slowly decrease the amount and frequency that you are pumping. If you stop all at once it could be painful. If you do it slowly you will begin producing less and stopping will be easier. Good luck and congrats on continuing so long.

You should cut back slowly over time each pumping session. If you just stop you will be engorged and miserable! Think about the time that you get the least amount of milk and stop that one first. Then cut back one at a time every 2-3 days. As well as pumping less at each session. The less you demand the less you will make. If you have the liberty to pump when ever you need to you can stop pumping all together and only pump when you are FULL and just pump enought to get rid of the discomfort from being so full.

Hi B.,
First of all, congratulations on continuing to give your baby the best for her even after she self weaned! What a great gift you have given her! I have 3 boys and am currently still nursing my 18 month old. I have never had one self wean and doubt I would have pumped after a year. You definitly need to cut back slowly or you will get engorged. I would cut out a one pumping session, wait a week or so, then cut out another until your milk is almost gone. That way you will give your body time to adjust to needing less milk. I wouldn't quit until you have given your daughter whole milk to make sure she will drink it. She probably will, but you don't want to find yourself with no milk supply if it takes her a little while to adjust to cow's milk.

Good luck. Feel free to email me. I have breast fed 3 babies, the longest was 26 months.

D.

HI!
I breast fed for 20 months until my daughter was done. So I had the natural slow down in frequency. Is your milk still coming in pretty well? Mine went from heavy (too much) to very little by the time we quit. If you just fase out you shouldn't have any problems. I was really surprised by how mine just stopped! I still leak a bit when they get cold or touch my bra and my daughter is turning three in March! But they quit producing almost immediatly. Have you thought about what you are going to replace your milk with?? About 1 would be a great time to go to a sippy cup with low sugar soy milk and baby food and get rid of the bottle while the novelty of the new milk and cup will impress. My daughter has never had an ear ache or cold where her father and I both suffered with them as children and now we both have serious digestive problems. GO WITH SOY if you can!
Hang in there and Good Job and Good Luck and God Bless!

Excellent advice from your one response. To go slowly will make things much easier for you. I applaud your dedication to your baby. Just a tip for your next one. My daughter tried to wean herselp at 6 months, but she refused a bottle and was not eating any solid foods at that time, so I knew that she could not stop then. I had to work with her a whole day to get her back to nursing. I never knew what the problem was, and didn't have the problem with my second child. LeLeche League was a big help to me. I found a contact person through the Montgomery Chamber of Commerce.
Good luck to you.
D. S

First off... Way to go! Breast is best! :-) I didn't have to wean my son either. What I did, after he turned 1 yr, I gradually reduced the length of time I would pump & reduced the number of times a day I would pump. (instead of 15 minutes, pump 10; instead of 4 times a day, 3) Don't pump until your dry, just pump to relieve the pressure. Your body will know it's time to shut down the milk production, because your baby girl no longer needs it. I can't remember how long it took, but by pumping a little, it wasn't uncomfortable & I was able to dry up naturally. Although next time, I think I'll pump forever! Sure miss the D twins! :-) Good luck!

i just stoped. it was easy and it didnt have pain just a bit of leaking for a day or two

Hi Bridgit!
You need to slowly stop pumping (as if you were weaning a child). Eliminate one pumping at a time. Once you no longer have any engorgement at the time you would pump, eliminate another, etc. This reduces the risk of mastitis.
You can express or pump just a little bit of milk if you become uncomfortably engorged during the process.
L. G
IBCLC

YOu have to slowly stop. I have never weaned from a pump but the nature way that the baby does it is slowly. If you quit cold turkey it would be very painful. Good luck!!

I had the same issue with my son. He weaned himself at almost 11 months, and I pumped until he was over 1 year. I finally took him completely off breastmilk at 15 months (I had a lot stored up). I recommend tapering off on the pumping. Space out the time between the pumpings, and once you get to where you can pump once per day without getting engorged, you can probably stop. Also, take the time of each pumping session down as well. That way, your body will naturally stop producing as much milk and dry up without causing you any pain. One of my friends just stopped, and she was engorged for about a week. She said it was extremely painful. Good luck.

What I did when I tried to stop pumping is slowly spaced out my pumping so that my milk slowly decreased and I didn't have to worry about leaking, overfilled breasts or any of that. I had been pumping every 2 hours. One day I went to every 3, then the next 4, then the next 5. By the end of the week, I usually only had to pump once in the evening so I wouldn't leak during the night. By the end of 2 weeks, I was done. Hope this helps.

Great job on keeping it up this long - this is something that I had a huge problem with too! I breastfed my son for over a year (I wasn't as lucky as you with the weaning process), but once I was ready to "dry-up" or whatever you want to call it I didn't have a clue what to do. I had read different things and they almost all contradicted each other. I had read that eating mint could help with it, so I bought green tea with mint and ate those Altoid mints because I figured it couldn't hurt and I had minty fresh breath too. :) Then, I did not pump or anything for three days and my breast got HUGE and actually they hurt pretty bad. So, on the third day I wore two sports bras. My mom kept telling me I better just leave them alone, but I knew that couldn't take it anymore. After I got home from work I drained both of them almost completely (which filled over two bottles) and then they basically just dried up completely over time. They never got full again and I didn't have any leaking problems or anything after that. I don't know if this will work for you, but I hope you find some way to take care of it...

It is unusual for a child to wean this early, (usually they have a need to suck, well into age two and sometimes beyond), but if they have a cold and nursing is difficult, or for other reasons, it can happen. I am glad you are still giving breast milk to your child, per cup I imagine, however you did not say. Breast milk is essential for a healthy immune system, and for the prevention of many diseases later in life. Since the normal weaning process, has been changed by your child, and breast milk is produced by supply and demand, you may want to gradually decrease the amount you pump and therefore will gradually decrease the amount you produce in your breasts. You can gradually continue to decrease pumping, just like your child would have gradually decreased nursing, until you are no longer produce milk. It should not be painful if you decrease the amount you pump very gradually. Hope this is helpful. B. S. RN,CCM.

I breastfeed my little boy until he was 13 1/2 months old. And had to stop suddenly because I had to have gall bladder surgery. Anyway, I had so much milk that I wasn't for sure what to do. So what I did was just pump enough off to to relieve the heaviness and leakage and let the rest dry up on it's own. Some people will tell you just to stop all together but that didn't work for me. I had so much milk that I had to do something to relieve the pressure but I didn't pump enough to keep the milk supply going so when my body saw that I didn't need that much milk anymore, it stopped producing it. Hope this helps and good luck.

The best way is to pump three times a day for a couple of days, then go down to twice a day, and then one time a day. After a week or two your milk supply will go down. After a day or two of pumping once just stop. You may become engorged and it is painful. If you can't stand it then pump a little bit out but do not empty the breast. This is how I did it and it worked great!

As a mother who was able to breastfeed until my child turned 15 months, trust me it is sad no matter how old they are. My best advice to you is to drop one pumping a day each week until you are down to pumping only once a day. That last pumpping will be tough to break and there really is so easy way to accomplish it. Your breasts will most likely feel like concrete slabs for a few days until your body realizes you want it to stop. You may feel achy and I even ran a low grade temp when I stopped nursing. Good luck. Hope this helped.

Laura (see earlier post) said it all. That is how I weaned my 4 kids, dropped 1 feeding at a time, about a week apart.

I breastfed my daughter for 6 months. I would have loved to do it longer, but I was unable to pump and had to return to school (college). You DEFINITELY don't want to just quit pumping...that could get VERY painful. You have to wean yourself...once u stop pumping so much your milk supply will gradually decrease. Try just doing it 3 times a day until you only need it three times a day, then slack off to 2 times a day and so on. OR you could just stop and for a few days your breasts will be engorged but then your milk will start to dry up. Also, most regular birth control pills will dry up your milk...talk to your doctor about that. I also know that there is a pill you can take to dry it up...is specifically made for that. GOOD LUCK!

Don't just stop completely, you need to stop gradually. You will be engorged and risk infection. I did the exact same thing with my daughter, at 9 1/2 months she didn't want to lay and nurse, she wanted to look around, so I bottle fed her until 1 year. I would pump less at each sitting and then gradually eliminate a sitting. After I got down to one or two sittings I would just pump enough to make myself comfortable, I would not pump myself dry. Your body will gradually make less and less milk.

Hey B....It is good to know there are still women out there who take the time to breastfeed their babies. I have breastfed my children as well and when it is time to stop, all you have to do is pump less. Your body produces the milk on a supply and demand basis. If you are pumping every 3-4 hours, your body will make whatever you pumped out the last time. You should start pumping less each day, maybe wait 5 hours before you pump again. With each day that passes, you should add another hour between pumping. Eventually your body will quit producing the milk. You will know, as you will not feel as "full". Amazingly, your body knows what you are doing. If there are women out there with the opposite problem, which their body isn't producing enough milk, all they have to do is pump more often. The more they pump, the more milk their body will produce. I hope I have helped you out here, and Good Luck. J.

When a baby weans naturallly like my little girl we cut down on # of feedings the older she got until it was down to 1, then stopped. Even when we were down to one and we just stopped one day before Christmas I was still engorged for a week. I tackled that with messages in the shower and then milk production just stopped.

Sooo...definitely taper. If you a pumping 4x/day then go down to 3x/day for a week, 2x/day for a week, 1x/day for week then stop. Try to pump a little less than you normally would and leave some milk in your breasts to let them know they dont need to do so much milk the next time. please know that you have to taper but speed of taper is up to your body. You may be able to go for less than a week or you may have to go more. Just cut out one pump at a time our you are going to be miserable and risk complications(mastitis).

ditto on the other lady for future reference. I thought my daugher was weaning at 7 months because she was sooo distracted and it seems like she was starving so I started to suppliment a little but I was persistent and DIDNT WAS TO PUMP! and I had the same 1 year aggrement with myself so I was more stubborn than she was and after about 1-2 weeks of the latch on pull off for no reason game I won and she started to eat better and not so distrated. They are so interested in their new world I thought she didt want me but she really didnt want to eat period!- just play! Keep that in mind next time.
You are almost there!

Think of it as weaning but instead of weaning your daughter you are weaning yourself. First cut out one pumping session but continue with the other 3 at the usual times. After a week drop another session and keep repeating until you are down to one session. The benefit of giving your body a week to adjust to the drop in sessions is to slowly let your milk supply adjust and lessen without causing you to be horribly engorged (you might get a little uncomfortable at first) and to prevent you from getting a clogged milk duct.

When you are down to just one pumping session you can decrease the amount of time you pump (maybe in half) and then after two or three days stop. Your milk will dry up very quickly once the demand is not there. You might find that your let down for the other sessions starts taking longer and longer too, which is another sign your milk is waning.

Great job by the way. I applaud your dedication to keep pumping after your daughter weaned herself. I know if my son had self weaned before a year I would have been tempted to not keep up pumping due to the time and effort. It will take a few more weeks for you to wean but don't go cold turkey as that will almost guarantee mastitis (breast infection).

I breast fed my son until he was eleven and 1/2 months old. They told me to just stop when ready. (Pumping almost every day in between, just so I could have extra incase I needed to be away from him.) I had swelling for several days (with discomfort) but then all was back to normal. If your concerned about your weight. You will likely gain weight back at this time. So, keep up the exercise. I lost my baby weight right after I had my son, thanks to breast feeding, but started to gain it back once I stopped.

I breastfed my daughter until she was about 13 months old. I wanted to for as long as she wanted to. It finally came the day to stop when she started biting me so bad I couldn't stand it any longer. With both of my children I stopped on Friday so I would have the weekend to recover. My granny wrapped a real soft cloth around my boobs pretty tight to "bind" me up and let my leaking stop. I stayed this way all weekend until time to go back to work Monday morning. Then I used those little pads that go in your bra the rest of the time. It took devoting this time to get through the initial pain. I also took Tylenol. I was tempted to keep pumping to avoid the pain, but eventually you have to just do it.

I pumped for four months (my child didn't nurse the old-fashioned way). I suggest you wean yourself. Skip every other pumping session for a couple of days and gradually stop all together. I hurt for about two days when I completely stopped, but I didn't regret the time I had to do other things!

It is really frustrating that it hurts so bad when you start to breastfeed and you have to go through more pain when you stop! Anyways I hope this will help cause I know it did with me! Put cabbage leaves in your bra, it sound crazy but it is AMAZING! It really feels better if you will get a sports bra that is 3 times too small so that it can really apply pressure. The more pressure the better. Along with that I just stopped one feeding a day and in your case 1 pumping a day. Then give up another every other day. So you should be completely dried up by a week and a half, because the cabbage is so wonderful. One more thing that might help, if you dont already, try working out. Alot of my friends said that helped. I coach softball so I worked out regularly so it would not work for me, but it wont hurt to try. Good Luck I hope this helps!!

I did the same thing with my daughter. When you stop pumping, your milk will dry up. Whatever you do though, don't stop cold turkey or you will get engorged and be in alot of pain. My advice is to apply the weaning advice from the books to pumping. Even though you're not actually weening your daughter, you still need weened yourself. I don't know if that made sense the way I wanted it to, but you can start with one or two less pumping sessions per day until you've stopped completely and it will be alot less painful that way. Also, apply cold compresses or ice packs to your breasts several times a day. Not only will this help alleviate the pain and swelling, but it will shrink your milk glands and keep them from producing as much milk too.

Its easy to stop. With each pumping, pump less out. Leave milk in your breasts. Then begin pumping less frequently. There may be a point after about a week where you can stop altogether (depends how much you are pumping now). You will probably have some tenderness and fullness but you just have to get past that and then its all downhill.

I would think that weaning and stopping the pumping would be similiar. I breastfed my premature baby until she was 9 months. At that time I had cut her back to one feeding before bed. So when I quit I wasn't producing a huge amount of milk and I wasn't uncomfortable. I would quit pumping the same way I think. Gradual. But you could just ask your babies pediatrician.

Technically, weaning your child from you breast would be no different than "weaning" the pump. If you are pumping four times a day you don't want to just quit because you'll be setting yourself up for engorgement, pain, possibly mastitis, etc. Cut back to three pumpings for a few days, then two, then one. Your body will let you know when it's ok to reduce one more. And congratulations for sticking with it as long as you have!

I am currently weaning also. My son is only 7mths old but between work and home I am not able to pump as often as I had been. We have only started supplementing with in the last 3 weeks. I learn from a friend to skip one pumping a week until you dont pump any more. Also reduce your pumping time. For instance....Week one skip one pumping and reduce your normal pump time by 5 mins. Week two skip two pumpings and reduce you pump time by 5 to 7 mins. I am down to 2 pumpings a day and for some reason can still produce one whole bottle between those 2 pumpings. In my opinoin, quiting cold turkey will be too painful.

I breastfeed for 1.5 years and I gradually started reducing the number of feedings and/or pumping sessions so that my body would naturally start reducing the amount of milk I was producing. When it came time to end the last session, it wasn't that bad. However, you can just stop pumping all together but it will be painful for several weeks while your milk ducts dry up because your body will continue to produce milk even if your not pumping for a little while. Good luck!