Trying to Stop Breastfeeding

I would encourage you to try to reintroduce nursing, even if you supplement with formula. The social and bonding benefits of this close, special contact between mother and child are wonderful, even if nursing can't supply all his nutritional needs. If you do try to keep nursing, your milk supply might increase and start to meet your sons needs.

If that is not successful and you have to pump to continue breastfeeding it is SO beneficial to your son. Even though you think your milk is watery, it still has SO many benefits for your baby - like natural immunities and compounds that can't be duplicated by formula. I would discuss with your son's dr. before deciding to quit. Most will say that even a little breastmilk is MUCH better than none.

Regardless of what you decide, I would recommend LaLeche League as a great resource on everything related to breatfeeding and weaning in a loving (and least uncomfortable for you) way. http://www.llli.org//. Their book - 'The Womanly Art of Breastfeeding' is great and gave me lots of ideas and encouragement when nursing and/or pumping is tough.

Good luck!!!

I think if you slowly wean. Cut a breast feeding everyday until you're done. (If you're not comfortable feeding him the milk then pump and dump) If you're feeling that it's just drawing out the process. Let them become engorged and put some cold cabbage on them. I think they are going to hurt a little anyway you do it. Sorry for the dissapointment. Cabbage helped me. Good Luck

If you can manage to slow the feedings down gradually - for example switch two feedings of breastmilk to formula per day for the first week, four feedings the second week, and so on, your milk should go away on its own. Hope this helps!

Don't stress about it!
If you want to continue breast feeding, go ahead - there is nothing wrong with your milk, and there's nothing wrong with supplementing either.
If you're sure and you're going to quit, do it gradually as others have suggested - don't let the milk build up to the point of pain, just don't let your body "think" you need to make more. This should be easy, relax :).

S.,
I stopped breastfeeding my daughter when she was about 14 weeks. I also was having supply issues and had introduced some formula along with the breastmilk. It helped to drop one feeding at a time, but I was able to drop them a bit quicker than one per week. If you're already losing quite a bit of your supply, it might go fast for you too. I continued to wear my regular nursing bra with pads to soak up the drips.
Don't feel like you're denying your son social/bonding time by discontinuing your breast feeding. You've done it long enough that he has gained much of the benefits. If it is stressing you out to continue with it, then neither of you will benefit from that. I was so much happier after we stopped and I wasn't worried about whether my milk was drying up or not. I knew she was getting fed well with the formula (while they'll probably never make a formula to exactly match breastmilk, they've come darn close). We continued to bond and interact with bottle feedings.
Good luck!

I breastfed my first for a year--and because he'd been biting since 6 months (to signal he was done!), we stopped cold turkey the DAY he was done. He'd been eating very well and our doc even ok'd small amounts of milk at 9 months. So it was VERY easy to wean him. I don't remember it even being an issue. I may have pumped once or twice to relieve engorgement, but it was a very natural, easy thing to do for me. Since you seem to enjoy breastfeeding and formula seems to be going well, can you just do it gradually--wean one feeding a day every two days, and do it over the course of two weeks? Also--I started having colostrum at 7 months pregnant w/ my first...and I've had milk through a second pregnancy, miscarriage, third pregnancy, and into breastfeeding this baby...so you may not entirely lose your milk even after you've weaned.

Absolutely do NOT bind your breasts! Your body is still making milk, and by binding or wearing a tight bra you will cause plugged ducts or mastitis, neither of which you want... EVER!

You will have to wean yourself off slowly. Drop one nursing/pumping session a day for a week, then the next week drop another one, then the next week drop another, etc until yo uare no longer pumping or nursing. Peppermint (altoids, star mints, any peppermint) will help dry your milk up as well.

Again do not stop abruptly, and do not bind your breasts, you have to stop gradually so your body can adjust.

I think if you cut down on one feeding a week, it would make your milk supply slow down. I did one feeding a day for a long time. I liked the night time feeding, it was a nice time to cuddle and help them settle in for the night.

I recently had to stop nursing myself. I weaned myself off of nursing by pumping smaller amounts every 2-3 days for about two weeks. I pumped morning and evening. This worked well and I experienced little to no discomfort. I stopped cold turkey with an earlier child, did the tight bra etc... and it was more painful than childbirth!! This time I would pump twice a day and then every 2-3 days I would stop pumping when I had about an ounce less than what I pumped before. I would then go 2-3 more days at that new amount and then stop another ounce or so less. Once I was down to only pumping about 2 ounces I then only pumped once a day. I hope this helps!

try cabbage leaves in your bra. my friend swears by it

S.,

I don't think there is any easy way to do it, but worked best for me was to quit gradually. I was solely pumping and bottle feeding toward the end, but every week I would cut out one or two pumping sessions from my day and after a few weeks of that I was able to stop pumping totally and didn't notice much discomfort at all. Basically the idea is to pump (or breastfeed) less often, however you do it is your choice. Seems that once my milk supply started to dwindle, it went fast. I've never tried binding my breasts, it seems like a much more painful approach. Hope this helps!

I have heard cabbage leaves work great. Try that at night!

A.

I would say stop BF and when you start to feel too full and uncomfortable, pump a little to relieve the pressure, go as long as you can with out pumping the next time and your body will naturally start to stop producing. I would think binding would cause plugged ducts. You could also talk to a lactation consultant.

Hi S.,

I decided to stop breastfeeding rather abruptly with my last one (my milk made him VERY gassy, no matter what I ate...even chicken noodle soup lol), whereas my first three I took about a month to wean. Once my fourth started on the bottle, he pretty much refused the breast right away. I'm glad your son takes both, because that will make this easier on you. With myself, I started removing one feeding every couple of days and replaced it with formula--at least that is how it worked with my first three--until I was done to zero feedings. By that time, I stopped having letdowns whenever "the ladies" felt like it.

With my last it was different because of the breast refusal. The first couple of days were awful, but to stop milk production, I only pumped enough to relieve the pressure of engorgement. I also hand expressed in the shower, just to get some of it out too. I would say within a week, I stopped having full-blown let downs, and it took about 2 weeks for me to "dry" up. I only used the pump for the first week though....then did the hand expression, but I guess whatever works best for you. I still had a little bit of milk production after those first couple of weeks, but we are talking teaspoons at most, which I could just hand express. Hope this is helpful. Oh, I heard several years back that putting cabbage leaves over your breasts is one of those natural remedies for drying up the breast. Never tried it, but a few gals I chatted with on yahoo swore by it.

B.