Drying up

Hellto mothers out there,

Just a quick question, can never seem to get a straight forward answer from anyone. How do you dry your breasts up? How long does it take?, how do you help the pain?

Aimee

hii, i guess this wont be a straightforward answer as well, but i hope it'll help.
if you are still breastfeeding her fully, you will need to take one feed off gradually, and replacing it with the bottle, example, stop breastfeeding her for her morning feed, and you will have to bear the pain a little bit, only if it becomes unbearable then, you could express ONLY until its comfortable again, the reason being when the breast is not cleared out, your body will think that the milk is not needed, so in a day or two, it will stop producing milk for that time slot. (does this make sense?)
So it will take a while for both breast to be totally dry out, depending on how much milk your breast is producing now. I weaned my firstborn at 8 months, and it took about 2 weeks, then you'll be left with very small amount of milk.
For the pain, express only as much as you need to, or panadol.
good luck

Thanks a lot for your help im going to give it a try

aimee

some ppl take up to a week to dry out where as it took me over night has i strated drying up even while i was breast feeding, i was expressing and woke up one morning to relieve the pain before breanna woke and only got 80ml out of both together so i had to put her on formula and by the next day it was gone only a few little leaks now and then, just depends on u, good luck

Hey Aimee,

I started replacing a breastfeed with bottle gradually. I then went cold turkey and gee my boobs went rockhard and hurt alot - my grandmother suggested cabbage leaves - which I laughed at but I kid you not it worked a treat - the cold leaves were so relieving it was not funny - the next day my boobs were hard but not sore and the day after they were softer until eventually WHALA no more milk.

Old wives tale come good
Good luck if not achieved already.
Abbi's mum

Hi,

thanks for all your posts. Well i had a good experience drying up my breasts. They did not get sore, i had no discomfort. I gave my daughter one feed a day for 3 days and then she was on the bottle completely.

It took 2 weeks for the milk to stop coming, but three has been such a small amount that i havent had to wear breast pads at all.

i cant wait to go to bras and things, get re fitted and wear a new bra, oh and to have a nights sleep without a bra.

aimee

I hear you aimee!!

I've just stopped as well (took about 3 days to dry up) and am waiting for my chance to get to B'nT. I have $190 worth of vouchers that i've received as far back as Sept, but wanted to buy 'nice' stuff. As for sleeping without a bra...hubby can't wait!!!

Dette,

i cant wait either !! my first pay check will be on nice bras !!!! cant wait for freedom and am so glad that i dont smell like breast milk all day - coz of the breastpads.

aimee

I fully b/f for 4 weeks and lost my milk in one side due to stress. I put him on a bottle and to dry my milk up I just stopped feeding and everyime they started to get very full I popped into a hot shower and rubbed them down.
It was enough to relieve the pressure but ot enough to keep my milk flowing.
baydenis now 10weeks old and I still ahve moist nipples sometimes when im feeding him. Its funny but it gets me a bit sad and i cant wear bras with wire yet as they hurt alot