I decided to wean my 19 month old. She would nurse ALL the time -- not for nutrition but for comfort. It seemed like it was getting in the way of her eating or finding other forms of comfort. And we were getting in a bad pattern that she would get to nurse because she was upset -- so she would throw a temper tantrum in order to nurse.
So, I decided to go cold turkey on stopping nursing. It's been two days. She is doing GREAT. No temper tantrums, just some reasonable requests - which I have answered with other distraction, food and activities. I think this might be very good for my relationship with her.
But I am not doing so great. I am ENGORGED. I have tried sage and cabbage leaves. I have taken sudafed and ibuprofen. Any other suggestions?????
Thank you all for the advice. I'm going with what is handy, and continuing the sudafed and ibuprofen. I've also been hand-expressing if I get too uncomfortable (and focusing on any particular spots). This seems to help.
She is still doing pretty good with it. She gives requests, but less often and is more easily distracted. Although it is hard on me right now -- I really think cold turkey was the way to go with this one. I'd been trying to cut down gradually, and it just wasn't working.
When I weaned my first son I would only pump when I felt discomfort and I wouldn't pump for a long time, only enough to get the engorgement down. It wored great for me and I dried up within a couple of weeks and no pain.
I stuffed my bras with ice packs to ease the pain and it helped - within about a week I was no longer engorged. Just be careful to look for signs of mastitis (infection in breast from blocked duct)
You should probably talk to a lactation consultant. La Leche League has them available, and you can find their number online. Your sweet girl was able to quit cold turkey, but it's really difficult to just stop nursing for your breasts. Usually, the weaning process would involve taking out one to two feedings a day, until the last one is removed. So your breasts would adjust to making less milk. You might could consider pumping three to four times a day, just until you feel comfortable, and then cut it down to two to three times a day, and then once, and then none. You don't want to risk milk fever. I hope everything works out well. Have a blessed day!
Just express a little milk to relieve yourself. You can take warm cloths too and apply them to your breasts for relief as well. Or sit in a warm bubble bath. That's what I did and eventually your milk will start winding down. Good Luck I know it's uncomfortable!
A.
Hot showers always worked best for me. I would stand under the spray and gently put pressure on my breast. The heat and getting some of the fluid down would go a long way and since it doesn't stimulate the milk production you don't have to worry about lengthening the amount of time before you "dry up".
Good luck on this. I know that this is not fun.
I quit breastfeeding my daughter at 19 months also. I had to get on a very high dose of antibiotics and my doc recommeded that I stop. I remember I was engorged and in pain. It took about 4 days for that to go away. I took hot showers and expressed just a little milk at a time. I would leak and night time was so bad because I sleep on my stomach. If it gets real bad contact Le Leche League and ask for more suggestions. Good luck.
If you don't have a pump, don't go out and buy one for this. You can pump by hand, just enough to relieve yourself some. Don't go back to breastfeeding, this will confuse your daughter who seems to be handling this fine. Just pump enough to relieve the pain some. It will get better in a few days.
When I went cold turkey with my oldest (he was about 19 1/2 months), I also got really engorged (but only on one side, his favorite!!), and I simply had to let him nurse. What I ended up doing was let him nurse once a night for another 5 or 6 weeks or so. At first I let him nurse 10 minutes on each side, and then I took it down to about 7 minutes on each side. Then one night (he was almost 21 months) he didn't ask to nurse, and he never nursed again. But at that point, I didn't get engorged at all. I did that again for my next two kids. Though my oldest and youngest saved the nighttime nursing for last, my middle one saved the first morning nursing. What I liked about doing it this way was it did away with the constant demands for nursing while letting ME hang on to it just a little bit longer. As one poster said, weaning is harder on the mom than it is on the child.
I used cabbage leaves, ibuprofen and benadryl. I think it took about a week to get pretty comfortable.
try weening yourself...by that i mean pump for example if you breastfeed 4 times a day pump twice a day and then decrease every 1-2 weeks until the milk drys up...you dont want to get engorged because that can cause an infection...my sister had to cold turky her son and she too got engorged and ended up with a breast infection...good luck and i hope you dry up soon!
Good for you for breastfeeding so long and then when you decided to stop you did. After I quit breastfeeding I still had to pump at least once a day. I would pump until I felt better but didn't empty my breast. This went on for about a week and then one day no engorged breast.
Also, warm showers helped and I would massage my breast in the shower. Milk would come out but I felt much better.
Try using ice packs, applying fresh green cabbage leaves to their breasts. Strip the main vein from two larger, outer leaves and cut a hole in each one for your nipple. Rinse and dry them before laying them on your breasts or sliding them into the cups of your bra.
Also, it would be very helpful to pump the breasts just a little whenever she begins to feel tightness. Pumping will not encourage the milk supply as long as she is not emptying the breast. Anytime just a little milk is taken out of the breast, it sends a signal to the brain to slow down on the supply. If your baby is still willing, it might be easier to let the baby just nurse a little during this time.
Don't apply direct heat, such as warm washcloths, heating pads, or hot water bottles, to your engorged breasts unless it's to soften the areola and help your milk letdown. Instead of alleviating the pain, this may make the condition worse.
An old fashioned method is to bind. Do this for about a week and you should be better. I had to do this and used an old pillow case wrapped around me and pined in place with safety pin's, real tight (day and night).
S.,
What worked for me was wearing a sports bra. Find the tightest one and wear it for a few days. It should do the trick. Good luck and God Bless!
A.
S., I agree with others. You should try pumping a few times a day, then cut it down to twice and then once. Shouldn't take more than 3 or 4 weeks. I am surprised that the Sudafed didn't cut your milk supply. I took a decongestant a couple of months ago for three nights straight. It affected my supply so badly that my 19 month old has pretty much weaned herself since. Just lost interest. You don't want to end up with mastitis. Pumping will do the trick. Good luck.
I tried the cabbage thing too and other than feeling awesome when I put it on straight out of the fridge I don't think it did much. I just took it as long as I could stand and then pumped a little just to release some pressure not to empty out my breast. I think I had to pump just a couple times at really sporadic intervals and after that I dried out. Hope that helps!:)
Sudafed benadryl and ice packs(20 minutes every hour while awake) The more you pump and hand express the longer it will take.
My heart goes out to you, I had the same thing and it is painful!! My doctor told me I could go cold turkey and to stop liquids and it would sort out. It didn't work for me at all! (cabbage leaves, etc. didn't help and ibuprofen didn't handle the pain, I was ready to go on morphene! This was my first child) On my next child, I was nursing and decided to go on a diet. They told me it would not affect my nursing, but overnight I dried up. WIth my third child, when I wanted to stop nursing, I drastically reduced my calorie intake, and again, the next day I had dried up. I hope it works for you! Good luck!
When I weaned by last dd (at 18 months), I cut her off cold turkey too. To dry up my milk, I took benadryl and birth control pills. It took a good week to dry up. You may not want to do the bcp's, but really it just takes a little time. I pumped just a little bit at the beginning to take the pressure off, and tapered it down for a couple days until the pressure went away. Weaning my daughter was alot harder on me that on her :) Good luck!
I agree with the advice to contact a LLL Leader. Consult is FREE and she will be able to help you do any troubleshooting. LLL is not just for nursing, but weaning too. There are quite a few LLL groups and Leaders in Austin.
http://www.lllaustin.org/
LLL recommends dropping only ONE nursing per WEEK to avoid plugged ducts, mastitis, etc. At this point, it seems that "pumping to comfort" would be a really good idea. This would relieve pressure and hlep your body to adjust more gradually.
As you've learned, cabbage leaves help some women more than others.
I would never recommend chemical hormone therapy for the sole reason of trying to lose milk - for many reasons. The two that stand out are 1) Not Necessary and 2)Doesn't work that way in all women.
Lastly, please be hyper-aware of your body, especially your breasts, right now. Is the discomfort a general breast thing? Or are there any specific spots that hurt more? Is there any streaking? Red spots? Warm spots? Do you have a fever at all?
Below is the LLL Answer Pages link. I think you might find some of this information very helpful in your weaning process. http://www.llli.org/nb.html
Also, kellymom.com is an excellent website on breastfeeding. It has a pretty good search engine. I searched "plugged duct", "mastitis" and "weaning" and found some good information.
HTH and please email me if something I wrote needs clarification or if you have any bf/weaning related questions.
K., mama to
Catherine, 5y
Samuel, 2y
EDD 9/09
