Weaning from a breast pump?

Can anyone help me? I need to wean my daughter and have only been able
to provide her breast milk with a pump. I read about reducing one feed
every few days. What do I do for the other feeds? Do I pump my breasts
empty?

I love giving her breastmilk, but it just isn't working for my husband
and me...pumping is like having twins!

Any suggestions will be welcome...
I don't want to call a lactation consultant because I know they will
try to persuade me to keep pumping...
-sf

Sue Fullilove wrote:

Can anyone help me? I need to wean my daughter and have only been able
to provide her breast milk with a pump. I read about reducing one feed
every few days. What do I do for the other feeds? Do I pump my breasts
empty?

What I did was extend the time between pumping sessions
until the last one "dropped off". Then, keep extending
the time until the next one drops off, etc.

-- Anita --

so if you are exclusively pumping, you know how much you are producing in a
day? and how many times you are doing it, so say it's 6 times per day and
the total you are getting is 32oz, then to start reducing for a few days
reduce to 5 times and not let your total exceed 28oz. I wouldn't completely
miss a pump, that would be a way to stop breastfeeding directly, you don't
really have the time choice then, so you have to just up the number of
artifical feeds one at a time, but with pumping you can choose your schedule
so adding an extra half to one hour gap between pumps is going to be less
uncomfortable than suddenly doubling the length of time between pumps, each
time, don't pump any more than you would have done at the nearest pump on
the old schedule, so if currently you are pumping at 7am and getting 6oz,
then at 10am and getting 5oz, you'd push the 2nd one to 11am and though the
first couple of days you'd likely be able to get a little bit more than
previously, don't do it, just take the usual amount, so you don't send any
signals to your body to produce more milk. After a couple of steps like
this, your body will start getting the idea and you'll likely find that the
first thing in the morning pump that never changed time starts decreasing in
volume and when that starts happening you can probably start to drop pumps a
little faster.

Have you thought about setting yourself a tolerable pumping routine? such as
3-4 pumps per day, you will likely not produce all the milk your child needs
this way, but some breastmilk is an awful lot better than none, short term
you'll reduce your child's risk of ear infection and tummy trouble and
though the long term benefits are not going to be quite the same, a lot of
them will still apply, just not lower risks by quite as much. I know that
this isn't something recommended for people who are exclusively pumping, but
partial breastfeeding is still better than no breastfeeding at all and a
child receiving some formula is exposed to a lot more bugs, so the
immunological benefits are even more relevant for them.

Have you really exhausted all options for feeding her at the breast? I would
consider contacting your local La Leche League group and chatting with the
leader about this.

I'd also check you are making pumping as easy an efficient as possible, I
realise it isn't easy and is always going to be hard work, but there are
ways of making it better, you don't say what pump you have, whether you have
a hands free kit and so on, all these things could make a difference, if
you're sat there attempting to EP with an Avent Isis, you may not realise
how much potential there is for it to be better!

Cheers

Anne

Sue Fullilove wrote:
Can anyone help me? I need to wean my daughter and have only been able
to provide her breast milk with a pump. I read about reducing one feed
every few days. What do I do for the other feeds? Do I pump my breasts
empty?

I love giving her breastmilk, but it just isn't working for my husband
and me...pumping is like having twins!

Any suggestions will be welcome...
I don't want to call a lactation consultant because I know they will
try to persuade me to keep pumping...
-sf

Firstly, well done. Pumping is immensely hard work, so good on you for
working so hard to get the best possible milk for the beginning of your
daughter's life.

As far as weaning goes, there are no specific rules as to how to do it.
The two important points to remember are these: You should make sure
that there's more milk than usual left in your breasts rather than
pumped out, because when milk is left sitting in the breast, that tells
your body that that amount of milk wasn't needed and you should make
less next time. But, you shouldn't leave so much milk behind that your
breasts get engorged and painful - that's uncomfortable for you and can
lead to mastitis (infections in the breast).

So, pump a bit less milk and then a bit less over time. For example,
you could shorten each feed by a few minutes, or count the ounces you're
pumping and pump a few ounces less at each feed. Then, after a day or
two when your body has adjusted to producing less milk, cut back again.
You can also reduce by one feed at a time, as you said, but that does
leave you feeling rather full at the time you should have fed. Either
way is fine, as long as you reduce the amount you pump in a day
gradually over a few weeks rather than all in one go. As Anne said,
once you get down to just one or two feeds a day you might find it much
more manageable and feel able to keep giving her some breast milk, or
you might be very glad just to be able to stop altogether. Either way,
well done again!


All the best,

Sarah
--
http://www.goodenoughmummy.typepad.com

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