Help....Trying To Dry up After breastfeeding...Sooo Painful.

You can't just stop cold turkey. You will have to just start pumping less and/or cut out pumping sessions. IF you just stop altogether, you will get engorged, which is probably the pain you are experiencing. Just express a little milk out, you don't even really have to pump. Just enough to relieve the engorgement. I have heard about cabbage leaves, though I have never tried it, I heard it does work. I've heard about the "binding your breasts." Honestly, that sounds barbaric and painful. Just express a little milk out to relieve the engorgement. Your milk will not "dry up" overnight. You may still notice that your breasts have milk even months after you stop pumping/breastfeeding. This is normal and nothing to be concerned about. But at least you will not be leaking milk and you will not be engorged anymore.

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This is what happens when you stop doing what is biologically normal... Why do you want to stop cold turkey breastfeeding anyways? You nurse and pump, there will not be any pain - by 4 months you won't even have any extra breastmilk to pump and leaking will be a thing of the past.

Breastfeeding seems a much better option than the pain you are inflicting upon yourself.

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I chose not to BF. Best advice I got (out here!) was to just go cold turkey. The cabbage is supposed to help, although I didn't use it.
I had about 3 days of extremely painful, rock hard breasts.

HOT showers 2x/day will help with the engorgement. Just let the water run, massage the hard spots where you need to. The hot water will help with let down, and some will run out, but not enough to encourage production. I felt instantly better after every shower I took.
SUPER tight bra with ice packs in it helped between showers.

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I just stop pumping and if my breast hurts. I get in the shower with really hot water or put some hot compresses on it, this works for me and took me 1 or 2 days to dry up.

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If you don't want to feel full and painful and risk infection, then one of the best ways is to reduce pumping gradually. If you feel really full in between, pump only for a few minutes JUST to relieve fullness. You are going to feel some sort of discomfort, but not as much as just cold turkey. Once you get down to pumping only an ounce or so, you will have to just stop completely. It takes 4-6 weeks after you stop for your milk to totally dry up, but you won't feel bad for that long! this is the process I used for both my kids, and it helped a lot!!! I just cut back and when I got down to an ounce, I would only pump if it was really uncomfortable and then one day I stopped and maybe felt full for 2 days and that's it. You can use cold compresses, not hot as that make more milk!!! Also, take tylenol if you can, it helps the pain. Hope that helps!!!

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I read all the other posts & no one has suggested this so I am nervous about it....I am NOT a Dr. but when I had my son someone told me that taking a cold or sinus medication helps because the 'intent' of cold/sinus medication is to make stuff 'dry up'. I took the recommended dosage for a cold and the pain and swelling went away within 2 or 3 days of ceasing breast feeding. I cannot stress enough though - you should be completely done breastfeeding so you have no potential harm or risk to your little girl. I don't even know what cold medicine would do, but I would be horrified if something happened.

Every "body" is different, and it may have been because I wasn't producing that much by the time I stopped, but that's what worked for me.

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Keep up with the gradual reduction of pumping. You might want to pump a little bit more. 4 days is a short amount of time to cut your pumping by half. I weaned my son over a couple of months. Eventually your milk will stop producing so much, but just be aware that you might still have milk for a while. I would still be able to express milk months after my son had stopped nursing. If he cried a certain way or if I took a hot shower, sometimes I would still leak. It gets better!

First, STOP PUMPING! Pumping actually gets out more milk than your little one is able too and all it's doing is signaling your body to make more milk. You're confusing it! Second, there is a substance in cabbage leaves that helps with the inflammation and swelling. Chill them, break up the hard veins and arrange them in your bra. Yes, you will smell of cabbage but it does really help. If you choose not to use them, use frozen vegge packets (wrapped in a towl) as a compress but a hot shower is not recommended (I know it feels really good but the heat may encourage the milk to let down and your body will think it needs to make more). If you need some relief, a small amount of hand expressing is ok but not too much; just enough for some relief. Don't be shy about using ibprofen if needed. And drink lots of sage & chamomile tea (as well as water!). I'm able to buy whole sage leaf in bulk at my local co-op but if you need to, the powdered stuff is ok. Just wrap it up in a small bit of cloth or the tea will be cloudy & grainy. Drink several cups a day; there's something in the sage that helps.

I experienced all of this myself about a year ago when my not quite 4 yo decided to wean herself. I consulted the local midwife and that's all she had me do. It took a little over a week for me (but keep in mind I'd been nursing for almost 4 years and my body took longer to get the notion). Good luck!

Id say stop pumping. Cool compresses, pain relievers and long warm showers will help. It will be over soon. Hang in there.

My first baby self weened and I begged her to nurse and give me some relief. You really just have to ride it out. My advice is to fiddle with your breasts as little as possible and get in a warm shower to express milk when it gets unbearable, but try not to stimulate them. It really will go away.
I had to go in the hospital while still nursing my son and they gave me medicine. I had to quit cold turkey, but my breasts didn't bother me that time so I only suffered the once.

I didn't try the cabbage. Some people swear by it.

Hang in there!

I am an L&D nurse and part of a breastfeeding committee at work. My suggestions to you is to slowly decrease the amount of time and the time in between pumping. For example make your pumping sessions further apart from each other. I would not set a time just pump when you feel engorged and only pump to comfort, just to take the edge off. Wrapping yourself could cause plugged ducts and abscess so I would not recommend that. Not very familiar with the cabbage but I dont think it would hurt.

Babys have a stronger suck then the pump does therefore pumping does not make your produce more milk. Now it could if you were doing it constantly and for long periods.

This is what I did with my son and what many of my fellow co-workers have also done.

Basically pump less throughout the day and for less time as well. Only pump when you feel you have to release, and just release enough to take the edge off.

Hope this helps.

Ive had milk since 1994 when my middle daughter was born. but it wasnt engorged all those years, just readily available. With my first baby they gave me dry up pills. If you cant get them anymore, I would slowly wean it down, and maybe only pump at the end of the day? Ive heard of binding, but that would hurt, and not sure why they say cabbage leaves, I would guess its soothing and reduces inflammation. Give it longer than a few days, do it slowly, 1 oz less a day, reducing every 2-3 days.

I cannot believe people try to quit in such a short amount of time ;-) I can't imagine how painful that would be! I slowed things down so gradually that it was not painful in any way. But by really slow, I mean over 2 months. I got advice on this way ahead of time so I knew I didn't want to do it the "crazy" way of trying to quit in a week or less ;-) Every week or two, I dropped a pumping/spaced them out more, and also pumped for a little less time. Yes, it takes awhile, but it is worth it! Good luck! I would never try to quit cold turkey & deal with the pain. I'm sure you can do it in a month maybe, but I wouldn't try for much less time than that.

OOh, you poor thing, I remember that feeling. So, you are stopping altogether? All I can suggest is to use a nice warm compress when it hurts really badly, and it will eventually go away. You can also expres a little when it is very painful, to help release the pressure, but for the most part I think it is a waiting game. I think you will have from about 3 to 10 more days of suffering before your body starts to get the message, I'm so sorry!

Awww bless you! I just quit nursing bc my baby is about to be a year and I thought I was getting pretty dry but after a couple days I was in some pain as well!! What I did this time and last time was to hold out until I just couldn't take it anymore and then pump like 2oz off each breast at some random time. It will relieve pressure, especially if you hold your breast and push on a particularly hard spot, you can actually push it right out, it's cool, hurts a little but worth it ultimately. Then once again, go until you can't stand it and pump a little, preferably at a different time then the last time you pumped. Like for me I pumped one night a little, then about mid morning the next day. Then not at all that day or night, and maybe one more time but I can't remember how many days later it was. I kept a well fitting sports bra on 24/7. They have these gel pads that you can heat up or stick in the fridge, I had them from when I first had my baby, I heated one up and stuck it in the bra, it was awesome. I did do the cabbage thing the first time around, the cold cabbage felt great but I didn't think it did much for the actual drying up. I think you can get relief just fine from ice packs, I felt like all the cabbage did was make me smell cabbagy! Good luck, it's a little rough, but you will get through. I actually only had one bad breast this go round and I took that sucker in my hand and squeezed it a little after pumping and really got after this one little hard place and man, that did the trick! Just sprayed right out and didn't' return!! Hang in there mama!!

If I remember right from the breastfeeding class I took, there is something ( an enzyme of chemical) in the cabbage that stops milk production. I remember the lactation consultant saying it was a great way to help releve engorgment but not to use it for too long os it would completely dry you up. I've never tried it but it might be worth it.

Our daughter quit nursing cold turkey when she got had, foot, and mouth. I had quit pumping, but tried to start again so I wouldn't lose my milk supply. I was afraid she would want to start nursing again once her mouth healed. She never did, so I quit pumping. I had a couple of painful days and did a lot of leaking, but it was just a few days of misery for me. I did continue to leak for at least a week, but didn't have the engorgment. Good luck!

First do NOT bind your breasts! You can get plugged ducts or even an abscess!

Pump just enough for comfort not a full pumping session. This will tell your body that it doesn't need to make as much and you won't feel the way you do. It will NOT signal your body to keep producing. Remember-breastfeeding/pumping is supply and demand. When the demand decreases so does the supply.