Stopped Breastfeeding After 5 Days - How to Control the Swelling

Frozen baby peas in a Ziploc saved me (they are small, stay cold longer than the cabbage leaves, and can roll around loosely in the bag to "conform" to areas where you need relief)! Hope you are feeling better soon!

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Try cabbage leaves! I know it sounds silly, but they're supposed to help with breast engorgement. Tear off the outer leaves and put a few (cool) leaves over each breast. Good luck, R.

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First of all, be content and happy with this very personal (and probably difficult) decision. I hope when people respond to this they are respectful toward you and don't put you down for stopping.

There are a few things you can try. You can 'hand express' (gently squeeze out milk) ONLY to the point where the pain decreases. Don't do a whole lot of this, though. Lactating is very much a supply and demand process, so if you're expressing a lot of milk the brain thinks the body should make more. So, only a few minutes just to take the edge off.

I never did this but I have a few friends who SWORE by using cold cabbage leaves in the bra. They claim it helped with the swelling and engorgement.

Good luck to you and just know that this will eventually pass - it will get better, so hang in there.

And, congratulations on the birth of your baby!

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Stand in a hot shower, bend over a bit and the hot water will let them drain. I had to stop breastfeeding my twins at 2 weeks due to medical reasons. It will pass.

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Hi-
I am going to suggest cabbage again. When I had my daughter that is what the nurses said for me to do....even went and got a head of cabbage from their stock in their fridge. Place cold leaves of cabbage on your breasts and wrap yourself up tightly in a sports bra or I used an ace wrap and the cool should give you some relief and the cabbage will do it's work. Do not apply heat or warm water to your breasts because that will cause you to expel breast milk and signal your body to make more.

I hope you start feeling better soon. Take care of you and your new baby...Congratulations!

G.
married mom of 4 (from 14-1yr old)

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cold cabbage leaves and ibruprofen. Watch for signs of an infection and call the dr right away if you see any red spot, hot patches or you feel fluish.

good luck

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The comments below are all right on ... except for pressuring you to continue to nurse. I stopped after 5 days too for various reasons - not an easy decision but I quickly got over it. I have a wonderful healthy little girl. Congrats on your little one!!!

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When I had my first daughter 4 years ago and stopped breastfeeding they told me to put cold cabbage leaves in my bra. When they got warm I replaced them .. If I remember right it took a few days and the swelling was much better.. Good Luck..

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Peel off leaves from a cabbage and put them in your bra. When they are wilty and used, replace with more cabbage leaves. Hope this helps!

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Your dr. can give you a shot to help dry up he flow. Wearing a binder helps restrict the milk production also.

I just pumped a very little to eleviate the pain. You may swell again, but eventually you will dry up. It will take longer each time for the swelling to happen. I had to pump maybe 3 times like that and then it stopped happening and I was done. Good luck

When I stopped breastfeeding my son at 6 months, I was very engorged also. It took about 2 weeks for them to come down to normal. Then I leaked every so often, but not much. Try the cold cabbage leaves, tight bras and give it some time. They'll come down, but don't bump them into anything in the meantime (it'll hurt).

If you have a pump, although it's a much longer process it's definatel less painful. After stopping cold turkey with my first, I learned a much better way. As you start to get engorged, (b4 it's painful) pump about 1/2 out, this will relieve the pain and because your not totally empting out, it signal your brain to produce less. Gradually extend the time between pumping and lessen the amount. It takes a while but think of it as a bonus. you can mix the breast milk your getting with the formule. Double bonus. Better for baby, ALOT less pain for you. Good luck

I feel your pain, sista! Yesterday I didn't nurse much for the first time in a long time and became VERY swollen. Ouch! Hope the cabbage leaves help!

Sometimes there are valid medical reasons to stop nursing. If you were having a tough time with it and would just like to chat, I'd be happy to talk to ya. I had a really hard time at first. I cried a ton, but we figured it out.

Take care!

I know your pain! When I stopped breast feeding I took a hot hot shower to help release the built up milk supplies. When I got out of the shower I was instantly relieved. After that I wrapped my chest in an ace bandage (to stop from becoming engorged a gain) or wore a tight fitting sports bra. Within 2 days I stopped getting engorged (even though there was still some mlk production) I wasn't in pain and was able to regular bras with breast pads. Hope this helps!

Awww... are you sure you want to stop?

If you're absolutely sure, there are things you can eat that will help reduce your supply too... try mint, parsley. You can google for things that reduce/dry up supply too.

Cold cabbage leaves and fitted sports bra work great!

My first question would be ...did you stop cold turkey? Maybe you need to start up again and slowly ween yourself off of it . Sorry I couldn't offer you more...but try that.

You can use some pain reliver I believe. Also, when you are showering try to keep your breasts away from the heat of the water.
I also did wear a sports bra which seemed to help.

The cold cabbage leaves really do work. I don't know why, but helped for me when my oldest was born and I hadn't bougt a breast pump yet.

You probably have good reasons to stop, but I am sorry you're stopping so soon. I love, love, love that my kids (who are 6 and 10 now) are rarely sick and that I was able to burn so many calories just thru producing milk and breast feeding, great way to get rid of baby fat.

i would at least pump to get rid of excess milk. my doctor snd sister told me to quit gradually.if not gradual enough you could get a breast infection.they are horrible.good luck.

Our daughter had trouble initially latching on and a friend suggested cold cabbage leaves to help ease the pain. That seemed to help a bit then it was suggested that we pump and save the milk which we also did.

from a Mr. Mom

Hi D.,

When I stopped nursing my son, even though I did it gradually, the cold compresses didn't help either. I called my dr. for advice, and she told me to go out and get a bra that was two or three sizes too small and wear it until the swelling was gone. That did the trick. It worked within a day a two.

Hi D.,

This happened to me. I think you should go to the doctor. What worked for me was to used cold compresses along with pumping in order to empty out the engorged breast. This should work unless you already have a plugged duct which can turn into mastitis (you do not want that!)and in that case you will need antibiotics. For these reasons it is best that you see your doctor about this problem.

You really need to call you gynecologist...from what I understand if you are going to stop breastfeeding you need to take some sort of medicationt to stop the production of milk. Call today, otherwise I believe you could get an infection and I hear that is not pretty. Good luck.

It's very painful, I know. There isn't too much you can do besides the cold compresses. You can do some of the expression techniques that previous posters mentioned, but you want to be careful not to express too much, as it will just stimulate more supply. From a comfort perspective, it helps to wear a very tight sports bra or you can wrap with an ace bandage too. Motrin might help as well. Hang in there, it will pass soon. I think it took a couple of days for me for the swelling to go down. Congrats on the birth of your little one.

call your Dr there is a medication they can give you to dry you up . I took it after both my sons. Believe me it was a great help I hurt so bad i cried.

I have gone through this 5 times! I would wear 2 very tight sports bras ALL THE TIME! I mean ones that you have to peel on. Basically, ones you wore before you were pregnant :) Keep them on overnight too. My feeling is your chest will grow to the size of the tank...like fish. SO, do not give them room to grow! The only time I peeled off the sports bras was to shower. When you do shower make sure you do not let the shower spray on your chest. Just keep your back to the shower head and make your chest off limits. If you touch them even to wash they are stimulated like it is a baby and will begin to leak. What comes out will refill. All I can say is that the day you think they are going to pop and you cannot stand it anymore...the next day gets batter :) Sometimes I would put a pack of frozen peas over my sports bras and that gave me some relief for a short time. Hang in there:)
J.

If you are really sure you want to stop, you can take sudafed. It's one of the medicines that you can not take much of while nursing because it drys you up. This isn't a recommended use of the medicine, but a real side effect. My friend who use to work at a dr's office would tell the patients this (off record). I don't know the doses, but probably what you'd take if you have a cold. Just don't overdue it. If you are having second thought about nursing and want to try to continue www.kellymom.com is a great free site that may help. Good Luck!