How to stop breast feeding?

taysty

Registered User
I'm going to stop expressing breast milk for my baby in a few months time. Just by pumping less times per day and it will stop itself? Or, to pump when your breast is hard like a stone?

I've got no idea at all to let the breast stop producing milk.
 
What are you doing now? Directly nursing, or pumping, or both?

In general, you just want to do it for less and less time each day or each week and your supply will therefore decrease naturally. If you do it that way, you can stop breastfeeding with no engorgement, pain or mastitis (unlike if you go cold turkey!!)
 
I'm back to work and she is exclusively bottle feed now. I will choose the pumping less and less. Sorry if i sounds stupid, how long will it takes for my supply to decrease till zero?
 
as my supply wasn't great to begin with, it took me about 1-2 mths to go back to "normal" but still, if you pressed on hard enough some milk would advertently come out...not enough to feed anyone though - and that went away maybe completely in about 4-6mths...can't remember very clearly.
 
I went cold turkey by going away for a weekend. The breasts did become hard and I was tempted to pump, but having regular warm showers/baths provided some relief and allowed some leakage. As I wasn'tn pumping, it just took about a week for my breasts to stop making any milk - it all just got reabsorbed into my body. That was it!
 
If I were you, I'd guess how long I pump for in total and reduce it each day by 5 minutes or so. That's probably what I'd try...

Another thing that you could do is drop a pump - if you currently pump four times a day, try going down to three, and then when that "stabilises", try two and then one...

How frequently are you pumping??
 
I'm pumping 6 times a day, not more than 20 mins per time.

I'm not so good at supply but I wonder why I still gets engorgement?
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What I would suggest is reducing the number of times you pump every day, but maybe make each pumping time a little longer at least at first to accommodate. Dropping pumping sessions generally will reduce your supply.

How old is your baby? I found that the engorgement was worst in the first couple of months or so, but now that she's closer to six months, even though I'm pumping greater volumes less frequently, now I don't get engorged so much and I don't leak or anything at all... but when she was a month or two old, I was getting engorged more and leaking more, even though I was pumping more frequently and less volume each time! *shrugs* it doesn't make sense to me!!
 
If you count each one of your pumping sessions as one feed then drop one session every five days and then stop altogether. Don't do pumping sessions next to each other i.e. plan it so they are at different times of day. Then you will have a comfortable slow down without much pain. I then wore a tight-ish sports bra for a week and it all worked out fine with no issues at all. I did this after feeding both my babies.
 
@ nicolejoy

My baby is close to four months now. I also find it doesn't make sense as I sometimes get more milk when I'm engorged but sometimes not.

@ newbiekt

I think your way is good at different time each day.

@ yonge

I work 5 days so taking warm shower is not so convenient though I want the quickest way.
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