How to stop breastfeeding? Is now the time you WANT to wean? If so, I can help. If not I can help.
If so follow the suggestions below.
If weaning is not what you want, lets get you past this hurdle. In order to do so, I strongly urge you to find support with a local lactation consultant or peer support with the LaLeche league.
But if you are ready to wean then there are several things you can do to ease the transition and possible engorgement that can occur while weaning.
The preferable method is to cut out 1 feed every 3rd day until you are "dried up". It can take weeks or months.
This method is the least painful for you and baby.
The quick wean method is to cold turkey stop all feeds and stop ALL EMPTYING. If you keep emptying you will keep producing.
DO NOT BIND your breasts, this not only is painful but it does not help.
You can however use cabbage leaves to aid in the process and reduce engorgement pain.
Simply buy a head of green cabbage (red is ok but will stain fabric). Tear the entire leaves off, wash them, put them in a ziploc bag in the fridge to store and place one leaf in your bra until it is wilted. Throw away the wilted leaf and replace. Do this over and over until your milk is gone. It has been known to dry up milk in a day instead of a week.
Here is some tea that can help reduce your supply faster:
Just a word from experience. When I weaned both girls, they had gradually weaned to two feeds per day on their own. So I never used cabbage or any thing else for that matter. I simply let nature take its course. With my first daughter, my milk was unable to be expressed after one week. She was bottle induced weaning, I introduced a bottle early due to going back to work so she weaned at 10 months. I wish I would have tried the tea.
But with daughter #2, who I breastfed for 2 years, I still had milk 4 weeks after stopping all feeds. I did not have pain or engorgement, but I still had expressible milk. Maybe even longer than that, I just quit checking after a month. Just fyi, it can take some time. I was not pumping, but every couple
days I would self express just to "check it out". I could not help myself.
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