Breasfeeding-drying Up

Take a tube sock and fill it with rice. Put it in the freezer and then use it on your breasts. Sounds stupid but it works.

First off, stop using the warm compresses..Even when you take a shower stand with your back to the water..Heat actually makes you let down more..Try binding your breasts with an ace wrap really, really tight and get a tight fitting sports bra..You can also try the cabbacge leaves again..If you need to pump just to relieve the pressure or you could manually express some milk to relieve the pressure..And keep using the ice..Try some tylenol or motrin for the pain..Good luck!

Do not try and just quit. Your suppose to slowly stop. Just pump or left the baby nurse a little less everyday. I didn't have ANY problems! There was not much pain at all.

When I weaned, here's what I did:

Pumped only to comfort, meaning I pumped for about 5 minutes. It would be just enough to get that "my boobs feel like very full water balloons sagging to the ground" feeling to go away. I waited it out as much as I could before I would pump again. In the beginning it was 12 hours, then 18, then a full day, then 2 days. It took about a week and that was it. I still 'leaked' for up to 3-4 weeks after, but pain-free.

Remember, lactating is all about supply and demand so if you give your body the 'illusion' that it doesn't need to make more eventually it won't. You can also hand-express. If hand-expressing is really painful then put some lotion on your hands and gently massage your breasts while trying to express.

The cabbage leaves worked perfect for me with both pregnancies. You just need to wear them in your bra 24/7 and change them as soon as they start to wilt. Keep trying the cabbage, I promise it will work.

Wean slower. I'm nursing Bearcat (nickname) a little and then offering him something else he likes. If you don't ease the pain by letting out a little milk you will have to endure it. Weaning cold turkey will always be painful.

If you feed your baby less, your body will make LESS!! and soon you'll be home free : )

J. wear a good sports bra. That's what I did with my first. I am hoping to get my now 18 month daughter to wean herself. She only nurses at night and I think we are getting close. My son quit cold Turkey on me @ 9 months boy I was not prepared. Now my daughter just keeps hanging on. But I knwo we will get there.
Good luck

You should start feeling better in a day or two (or three). It's amazing how quickly our bodies adjust. However, in the meantime, you can pump/hand express *just enough* to ease your discomfort. Some people will say don't do this b/c it will just signal your body to make more, but it won't. You'll feel better this way. Don't bind yourself, it can cause serious problems.

I've heard if you wrap your chest with an ace bandage to create constant pressure to help the drying up process. Good luck, I'll be right there with you in a couple of months so you'll have to let me know how it works or what worked!

: ) S.

I took 800mg ibuprofin...I was surprised it worked, but it did. And it was much easier than cabbage leaves and all those other things. Good luck I know just how painful it is! :(

A more gentle, kind method to both your body and your little girl would be to gradually wean (obviously, if you have some major medical emergency like need to get chemo or something, an abrupt weaning would of course be necessary so please ignore my suggestion if this is your situation).

You could simply remove a feeding each day, or if there are too many for you to count, you could pick a number that you're OK with and explain to your daughter that there will only be 4 nursing sessions a day. Then gradually over several weeks or months you could drop another feeding. Abrupt weanings around the 12 month mark are almost never comfortable, physically or emotionally, for mother and child. Our bodies and our babies are evolutionarily designed for nursing a baby for several years, so what you're going through is very common. If you are unable or unwilling to do a more gradual weaning, you can take ibuprofen for pain/swelling, hand express or pump to comfort to relieve your engorgement, and cool compresses can also help. Some foods and over the counter drugs can dry up supply too (peppermint and sage, for example, as well as I think antihistamines - though you'd have to research this online - kellymom.com might have some info for you on this).

Best of luck, and congratulations for breastfeeding for almost an entire year - I wish more women would follow in your footsteps! Hope the weaning process becomes more comfortable for you, as well.

Try tylenol, and when I had to dry up cold turkey for medical reasons, the lactation consultants in the hospital used ace wraps to bind my chest, which hurt at first but then really helped me feel better, took the pressure off. They also recommened pumping for a couple minutes, just to relieve pressure, but not enough to get much out, after about 3 minutes I was comfortable.
\ Hope this helps!

Try putting sage on everything you eat....a ton of it. It will taste like grass, but it helps to dry you up. Keep up with the cabbage leaves and maybe try some ibuprofen. I thought I was going to die when I stopped breastfeeding. I had natural childbirth and I swear stopping breastfeeding was more painful. It will eventually stop hurting, but the sage really seemed to help me. Good luck!!