Working Moms: When Did You Stop Nursing?

At 10 months my daughter tried to bite my nipple off. There was blood everywhere, at that point I was done. She was fine with it.

She's 19.5 months i am still bfeeding and pumping *twice* at work. This is down from 4x at work until she was 18 months. I went back to work when she was 3 months.

-J.

WOW! You lasted longer then I did. I was off of work for 8 weeks and as soon as I went back to work my milk supply cut in HALF. I made it 4 months and 1 week before I had to suppliment. If you do nurse only in the morning and the evening you supply will lessen...she will be fine with out your milk now though. Good luck!

Hi H.-
I worked and nursed my daughter to 20 months. I started to reduce the pumping at 9 months and around 14 months I stopped pumping altogether. My milk supply sustained while I was away from her and at that age she was primarily on solids.
If you want to do away with the pumping completely and still keep up the nursing, you can always keep her to nursing in the mornings, evenings and weekends. I use to really find pumping and working a real challenge. It was not only the time it took to nurse but having to clean all the equipment and get it ready for the next day. I had to remind myself it was temporary and a good thing for my child.
Good luck,
A.

When my son was about 9 months I stopped pumping at work. At that point I would just pump once at home (usually before I went to bed) for the next day and if that wasn't enough for daycare they could supplement with formula. I was lucky though to be able to pump 8oz at a time (sometimes 12oz). I dropped that pumping session at 1 year which is also when we stopped bottles, and I continued nursing him at home in the morning and evening until he was almost 2 years old.

Hope this helps.
T.

Good Job on keeping up with it, yes not easy to work and pump! My older daughter I nursed until 1 yr then she stopped and I gave her some formula with breast milk at 10.5 mo. My baby is now 9 mo old and probably be our last so I hopefully can nurse her longer, but yes working, traveling and pumping is tiring. I used to pump 4x at work now 3x at work since she is a little older. I am getting pretty tired keeping up with it myself so I might be just nursing her at night and mornings. Right now I pump 6x a day and thinking of cutting back. You did really good on nursing her this long, I would say since winter and cold/flu season try to still give her as much breastmilk as you can. good luck & good job!

I work full time and nursed until 13 months, however, at that time, I was only nursing at night. I pumped twice a day at work until my son was about 9 months old. I pumped at night before bed so that he had some pumped milk and some formula while I was at work. Probably by 11 months, I was nursing just in the morning and at night, then just at night. I never imagined I would nurse so long. POumping at work is definitely hard, so if you need to cut back on pumping, I think that's completely okay. The hardest part for me was giving up the morning and night nursing because that was our "cuddle time."

6 months...it was just so hard to keep up.

I stopped nursing at 8 months when my son had lots of teeth and started biting and pulling on my breasts. However, the only time I ever pumped was when I was out of town on business and my son was home. He got used to formula while we were still in the hospital. I pulled a muscle while I was pushing for hours, but the finally did a C-section. As a result, I didn't feel safe trying to hold him to nurse unless my husband was with me. Therefore, the staff gave him bottles of formula at night and I nursed him all day. Once we got home, I nursed him unless we went out somewhere--as an older mom, I never felt comfortable nursing him in public, so he got bottles when we were away from home.

A friend at work had told me that she never pumped, but that her body adjusted to not producing milk during the day. Therefore, when I went back to work, I tried that, and it worked. I nursed him in the morning before work and then had to get right home after work to nurse him (or my blouse would get really wet, even with nursing pads). Then I would nurse him during the evening.

If you want to continue the benefits of nursing but want to stop pumping, you might try my method to see what happens.

I stopped nursing when I went back to work with both of my girls (around 5 months). I didn't feel guilty at all about stopping the nursing. Both of my girls took a bottle easily and are both happy and healthy. I knew pumping at work would have out me over the edge and I really didn't have enough time at work. I was able to nurse in the morning and night for about a month after I went back to work, but the milk supply was gone after that.

Around 2 years, just nursing morning and evening after their first birthday...

Hoa,

I made it to 10 mos breast feeding and pumping- though was down to pumping one time per 8 hour work day by about 9 mos. It does just get almost more stressful to pump regularly at work and that dropped my supply almost more then the letting up on the pumping. I would feed first thing in the morning (and some mornings could feed one side and pump the other), pump mid day, then feed at bed time (6/6:30) and then pump right before I went to bed (10/11). By 9 mos I was supplementing with formula at least one bottle during daycare. My daughter self weened at 10 mos...

M.

First off...don't feel guilty about cutting back on pumping. They say the first 6 months of nursing are the most important and anything beyond that is just a bonus. I am due to go back to work in a couple of weeks and my daughter will be 7 months old. At this point she won't even take formula or a bottle and I really wish she would. Pumping at work for me is not really an option so I pray that she will take at least half formula when I start back or I am going to have to be waking up at all hours of the night to pump. You are doing great and need to take the pressure off yourself and cut back as you need to. Your daughter is going to benefit most from the contact she will have with you while nursing rather than getting your breast milk from a bottle anyway. 7.5 months for exclusively breastfeeding is a long time. If she is getting half formula and half breast milk, that is more than healthy! Keep up the good work and give yourself a break. Good Luck!

I made it 6 months. I found in the corporate world people were more tolerate of "excuse me I need to go pump" for a 0-6 month old than they were for a 6-12+ month old. I'd talked with other working mothers as well. But, my job entailed a lot of meetings and such that were hard to work around. I think a lot depends of what you do and how flexible your time is at work. I had to be places at certain times for certain lengths of times and couldn't leave clients in a board room waiting for me.

I'm not a current mom of an infant... but do remember those days. I was one of the moms who didn't get to nurse as long as I would have liked, because my milk supply just didn't keep going. In fact, I wasn't able to nurse my first child at all. The other two, I probably had to quit at about the age your daughter is now. So, first of all, don't feel guilty if you decide to cut back to morning and evening nursing only and supplement with formula during daycare time. On the other hand, as someone who works with children, I would love to see you at least have some of your milk available for your daughter at daycare until she's a year old. Perhaps work out a plan with your provider to cut back on what milk she's offered during the day if she tends to drink more than she really needs. Supplement with other solids and water or diluted juices... or even with formula given at a scheduled time of day. Once she's a year old and the Dr. approves her going on regular milk, let that be her daycare drink and you can continue nursing mornings and nights as long as you wish to do so.
Do be sure you communicate often and clearly with your daycare provider as to what you want them to do for your daughter's eating and drinking. If she's in a large center where there are several providers taking shifts, you may need to try to talk with each of them, because even though they are supposed to communicate clearly with each other, sometimes things tend to 'fall through the cracks' and one may not get the message. You can even write out what you want and ask that it be posted near where they keep the bottles so everyone sees it. You also need to ask questions regarding how your daughter is handling the routine... whether they are having a lot of fussiness from her because she wants more milk, etc. just to be sure you are on the right track for her.

With my firstborn (who is now 5), I nursed and pumped until the was a year old. I was working at that time. When he turned a year old, I weaned him and stopped pumping. He developed three ear infections in a row. Looking back, I wish I would have nursed him at least through the winter months. His ear infections were in Jan., Feb. and March. Now, I have twin boys who are 13 months old. I plan on nursing them (and pumping) until the spring. I think it is a real boost for their immunity. I would encourage you to nurse or pump through the cold/flu season. Even if you nurse or give one bottle of breastmilk a day, it's better than no breast milk. It's no fun to be home with a sick baby. Also, with my twins, after they turned one, I have supplemented with goats milk instead of cows milk. The protein in the goat milk is more like the protein in human breast milk.

Hi there - with my first son, I stopped pumping at work around 10 months but continued to nurse (morning and night) until he was about 12 months.

I am currently still nursing my 2nd son and still pumping at work (once a day). He is almost 8 months and I plan on weaning him around the same time as my first (unless he weans himself first).

I'm a full time working mom who stopped pumping at 9.5 months and conitnued to nurse once in the morning and once in the evening until my son was 10.5 months. I do have other friends who continued to nurse once or twice a day for much lungoer than I was able to, so that might be an option for you. While I would have liked to continue until he was one year, I decided that it was not going to work. My production was slowing down (not matter how much water I drank or how much rest I got) and I just decided to let my body and my child do the rest. Do what works for you AND your baby - it's got to be a balance.
Good luck!

Well, you sound a lot like me. I went back to work when my son was 6 months, and pumped loyally 2-3 times per day the first month, then it started to taper off as work got busier. I was wracked with guilt and worry the first day I spilled some of the liquid gold, and had to go buy some formula... I think that was at about 9 months. Anyway, after I realized that he was getting all of what he needed (nurturing and bonding with me in the evenings, nutrition other times, and he'd already had 9 months of nursing) I started to relax a bit. It made a difference to discover that I got the same amount of milk whether I pumped once a day or three times a day! I stopped pumping all together when the day care told me he really liked the cold cow's milk better than the breast milk (that was at 13 months). I still nurse at bedtime, he's 15 months.

i have 2 children and with my first i stopped at 7.5 months because of my hectic schedule at that time. Naturally, i think with the first child, you will always feel guilty or insecure about your parenting but I am here to tell you that "it is okay!" A lot of moms feel like everything is a contest and I'm over it. So do what is best for YOU.

I pumped about 3 1/2 months @ work - it is SO hard. My milk supply cut way back (for whatever reasons...) And just having the time to pump and making yourself do it was really difficult. I feel for you and understand. The time w/the bottle can feel just as special as nursing w/out all the trouble and worrying about if you have enough or not. When you are ready to wean do your homework and take your time - I was surprised at how smoothly it went!

my experience....when i quit pumping at work and tried the nursing just in the morning and evening....my milk dried up and I couldn't nurse at all - good part to that I never got engorged like I did with my first child, but I did regret it later and wished that I had continued to pump....good luck with your decision!

3 years.

lordy.
I had the worst time getting my milk to come in, and when it did, I had a very happy baby. She really liked my milk, and I tried weaning a few times. But since she took to regular food and milk, and still wanted to nurse for comfort at night, we nursed. I work full time, so it was actually "nice". But I thinks she was the only pottytrained preschooler who still got nunus.

I even tried going on long trips abroad for work, and I'd still come back to a kid who crawled into my bed and nursed like a vampire at night. She also got me first thing in the morning, much like what you have planned. My day was: Nurse, shower, work, come home, nurse, make/eat dinner, watch news and nurse. The kid was rarely sick.

She finally quit when she turned 3 and said "I not a baby." And yes, this is all after she was potty trained and eating normal meals.

She got supplemental formula because my milk supply was always weird (but only breastmilk if I was around), started eating solids at age 4 months, and was eating regular food by 18 months. She just liked her nunus.

Do what feels right for you. Your kid will eventually stop on his/her own.