Planning to Stop Breastfeeding

If you are sad and bummed, why are you stopping?

I weaned down a meal a week or so, and then stopped. After about a week, I got engorged, and that finally went away about a week later and I was able to stop wearing breast pads.

I never breastfed, so I just had to wait for my milk to dry up.
It was 3 days of incredible pain and massively swollen boobs.

Everyone told me not to pump any off, or it would just prolong things, so I didn't.
Ice packs all day (I used frozen washcloths), and HOT HOT HOT showers 2x/day. The hot shower along with massage will help with the engorgement. You'll let down a little in the shower, and you can let some milk run out without having to stimulate things.

Good luck.

I HIGHLY suggest dropping one feeding at a time and doing it over a few weeks. This will help your breasts to adjust so you don't get mastitis. I did it this way and then when I was completely done, I wore cabbage leaves (fresh ones replaced when wilted throughout the day) for a weekend until the soreness was gone and the milk was no longer "filling them up." Of course if you squeezed, you would still get milk....but I had no leaking or anything this way.

I totally understand what you mean about the milk taking over the freezer -- I found a whole BAG of little baggies full (probably 3 weeks worth) at the bottom of my freezer when my baby was 14 mos old (2 months after I quit and thought I had run out of freezer milk). Woops! I ended up tossing it rather than getting him hooked on it again after I got him used to cow's milk. I will definitely be MORE careful this time around :) Best wishes and great job!

Wean hi off gradually so your milk supply will reduce on it's own. Breast milk is a matter of supply and demand. The less you nurse from your breasts, the less your milk production. It will take time though and there may be times that you need to either express milk to stop the engorgement or better still, run a hot/warm bath and let your milk let down on its own.

I still had milk right up until my daughter was like 3 & 4 years old but it wasn't so much that I could have nursed or sustained nursing another baby on it unless I worked to build up my supply again in the role of what used to be referred to as a "wet nurse." In time, it did all stop but the easiest and best way to reduce your milk and have it stop is to gradually wean him off the breast by cutting the time he nurses down over the next month or so. You can even eliminate a nursing time during his normal nursing schedule. Just don't nurse him and give him the frozen breast milk.

BTW, if you find that he doesn't want to take a bottle, get the Playtex nursers with the bags in them. Those are the closest to a mother's breast as bottles get. Also, hold him just as close and in nearly the same position as if you are nursing only give him the bottle instead in the cycle you remove from his normal routine of daily feedings. With enough time, he will gradually move more toward the bottle than the breast making it easier to lower your milk supply and reduce what may be an irritable time for him as he will not be getting the nursing as he wants... That's why it's important to give him the bottle while holding him in the same position or at least as close as you can to the position he is in when nursing.

As I was weaning my daughter off the breast, her dad wanted to feed her and he felt a bit left out because I didn't want to start off with nipple confusion. I had already had one child I wasn't able to nurse because of a problem with my milk and she was constantly sick as a child. It wasn't going to happen the 2nd/last time if my milk was okay, which it was.

The moment daddy went to feed her she didn't like it one bit. I finally had to have him take his shirt off and let her lay against his skin in a similar position as when I nursed her, then have him give her the bottle. It took a few tries and she did fight a bit but she finally started taking the bottle with frozen breast milk, just as you are doing, and she did ok afterward.

It was actually a good thing, DH's waiting because when she was first born, she was like 6lbs 12oz, which is not in the preemie range at all. I was over a month premature and I was only 4lbs 5oz or so... but she looked and felt so delicate to him that he was almost afraid to handle her, scared he would hurt her or "break her" if you will. But when she was older, she was bigger than at birth of course though nowhere near as large as a formula fed baby. He felt more confident by that point as well. So I would eliminate one of the night feedings so he could be home to feed her. the bottle and then I added semi-solids to solids to her diet as she grew to a point where the milk and oatmeal (I bought organic) wasn't enough.

Best of luck... And btw, the doctors don't give the shots anymore to dry up the milk though don't ask me why because I have no idea. I just know they don't give them anymore.

Hi--
I have to agree with lots of ladies--why are you weaning? If it is working for him and for you there simply isn't a reason to do it now. While American Doctors suggest weaning at 1 year of age, every other country in the world says breast feed for AT LEAST the first 2 years--that is the recommendation of the world health organization. They even have a specialized growth chart for breast fed babies because they tend to be smaller (thinner) then bottle fed babies until all kids average out between the ages of 3 and 4. Allowing a child to self-wean is the kindest way for your body and for the child as well. Typically, if your practice "don't offer, don't refuse", a child will not wean until around 2 1/2. The average age worldwide that a child will wean is between the ages of 3 and 4. My oldest weaned at 3 years 8 months. My youngest is still going strong at 33 months. (By going strong I mean he nurses when he wakes, at nap time, bed time, sometimes he has an early morning feed, and sometimes he nurses when he needs comfort). Studies show that children who are allowed to self-wean are actually more secure and less dependent as they grow because they know their needs will always be met (google attachment parenting).

However, if you do feel you need to wean, then do so gradually by removing one feeding at a time and replacing it with something else. Also, make sure you still provide lots of cuddles and love to make up for that lost bonding time.

And finally, if you are sad about weaning know that it isn't hurting your baby to continue. Trust that Momma instinct--if you're not ready then baby isn't either. You won't feel so sad when it's clear that baby is done.

Good luck in whatever you decide!
J.

does your baby take bottles with the pumped milk?

The best way is to slowly wean him and you(!) from the breast. Remove a feeding a week until you're down to one and then slowly remove that - This process takes longer, but I can say that this worked very well for me (though my weaning process went on longer). I was also very worried, because I would get very sore if I missed a feeding. If you slowly tell your body to reduce production, it will respond. Just don't rush it.

While he is growing up, he still has a long way to go to get past the infant stage! Even though you have enough expressed milk to get to 12 months, there are many benefits of nursing beyond just nutrition (comfort from teething for one!). If you are happy nursing, no need to stop now. It is recommended to breast feed until at least 12 months, but it's not like 12 months needs to be a cut-off date.

If you do have reasons that you want to stop, it looks like you've already received some good feedback on how to wean. I think gradually is the key. I bet you can find some good weaning tips on kellymom.com

9 months? If you are "sad and bummed about him growing up" don't be. Human children are BIOLOGICAL INFANTS until they are 8 years old!

I nurse my kids till they wean themselves. My daughter weaned at 3.5 years old and my son is still a boob-man at 28 months old. All kids wean eventually - ALL KIDS. Don't wean him - just go with it and enjoy his babyhood :)

I would just keep going if you don't want to stop... but as all the other moms say, weaning will be easiest on you and your baby if done slowly, dropping one feeding at a time.
I worked so the first thing to go were the pumping sessions. At that point my daughter was 14 months old and also drinking cows milk. I hated pumping so getting rid of it was easy. I skipped one session and spaced the other two out evenly, two weeks later skipped another one with the last one remaining mid-day and finally I just stopped.
At about the same time I dropped the night feeding, which was really smooth at she was just ready.
I kept the morning and evening sessions for a few months after that, finally dropped the mornings (easy to sub with a bottle of warm milk) and the last thing to go was nursing to sleep. We had a jet lag that helped (just back from Europe...she was too tired at night to nurse and often just fell asleep on the way home from daycare). Other moms might take a long weekend away...
All in all I weaned over a period of 4 or 5 months, no discomfort and very little protest from my daughter - however in retrospect I often wished I had kept it up for another 6 months or so...I really loved breastfeeding.
Good luck!

Hi there-I recommend nursing through winter because when the different colds and sicknesses creep up throughout the season, you will be able to pass those specific immunities to your son. The first winter can be really brutal with colds (especially if he's in daycare or other activities around children). It was such a lifesaver to not have to force pedialyte down my daughters, but to just nurse through everything--colds, throwing up, fevers, etc, all the while passing immunities. RSV season ends in April. If you can, I'd keep trying to nurse--if only a few times a day, to make sure he's healthier (and you can avoid a lot of worries and headaches). When I did wean (my daughter was over 2, my 2nd one is still nursing at 15 months), I did the slow, dropping one nursing at a time. It took at while, but I loved having those once a day nursing sessions together--it's really special time! Good luck!

i dropped breast feeding cold turkey, it HURT, but only took about a week for my body to get the hint

I would agree (in a couple of ways) with a number of things that have been said. I was sad too when my kids weaned themselves at 9 months and 13 months respectively. I lucked out that we had a huge freezer as well as my parents freezer to use too. I know you can also get another small freezer at Best Buy or some other such place for a very small price and then donate it to a food bank or school if you are totally done with it once you are no longer pumping. If you are not on board with another freezer I would check into donating some of what you have to a local mothers milk bank and help other kids that way too. Also if you have decided to wean I would say slow and steady is the best way by dropping one feeding at a time. I would like at dropping a daytime one first so you still keep those first thing in the morning and last night at night feedings as long as possible

If you are sad and bummed why are you stopping at 9 months? That's hardly grown up in baby terms. Lots of women nurse well over a year. I nursed both of mine past the 12 month mark-16 and 20 months.

You can try things like cabbage leaves in your bra, hot showers, tylenol, pumping off just enough for comfort-this *will not* signal your body to keep producing but it will help prevent plugged ducts, do not, whatever you do, bind your breasts in any way shape or form! That could lead to plugged ducts and other not so fun results.

Is there any reason why you're stopping? It's totally fine to nurse past one year. You could just stop pumping and give him some of the frozen milk over the next few months to use it up. Milk in the freezer can last a long time. I stopped pumping when my son reached 1, but still breastfeed first thing in the morning, before he naps and goes to bed and if he's having a hard time or isn't feeling well (he's 16 months now.) Do it as long as it makes you both happy!

It helped me to start feeding only in the am and pm and not pumping in between. My milk decreased and eventually went away completely without me having to go through the horrible engorged boob feeling like I did with my first child - that was miserable!! Hope that works for you like it did for me!!