Breastfeeding: Weaning Abruptly Is Hard

Sometimes, as much as we moms want to breastfeed our baby forever, there will come a time that we need to give up breastfeeding our baby for whatever reason we have. Weaning gradually is ideal but if in case we cannot do that, then be prepared for what will happen in the next few weeks. It's really bound to happen, believe me, I've been through it, look. I'm ready to tell you how to handle this the easiest way.

My daughter was already two years old when I decided to stop breastfeeding her. Before she reached two years old, I’ve already told her that she could only feed from me until she reaches two. Weaning her was a little bit gradual since I started to offer my breast once a day, and that is only during night time. At first, she cries so I instead told her that I will just carry her until she falls asleep. I was lucky since my daughter understands easily.

After a few weeks, I tried to completely wean her. It wasn’t easy since it was hard for me to hear her crying so what I did was to offer her my tummy. She likes to play with my tummy so I told her, she could just hold my tummy and I will hug her until she fells asleep. After two or three days, she can then sleep without feeding from me.

It was then my time to suffer. After two days, my breasts became so full and there were lumps. It was really uncomfortable and it really hurts. Good thing I didn’t get mastitis but I was worried about it, so I’ve searched the internet for some remedy.

I found out that cabbage helps. The vegetable leaf should be placed around the breasts to relieve the pain temporarily. After it wilts, get a new cabbage leaf. I only tried it twice but I think it helped me. Some sites also suggest Ibuprofen or something like that but I’m not fond of taking medicines so I didn’t take any meds. Expressing milk was also suggested so I tried it, but I didn’t completely emptied milk, but instead, I expressed a little just for some relief. I also tried breast pump and I think this helped me a lot. I pumped to extract some milk and the pain was gone after. I did it about once every two days for three times. After that, I realized the milk has dried up.

How many weeks before the milk dried up? I think it is about two weeks. After that, everything is back to normal, or no, not normal since the breasts are not like before, you would know what I mean when you get to this stage.

Tags: personal stories, tips, weaning

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