Moving to formula feed

[sarah1986]

Hi all

I have been breastfeeding my son for 3 weeks now and I have come to the point where I feel I can no longer keep it up, reasons being I am totally drained, he is a really fussy feeder and gets really stressed when feeding, kicking crying etc, which also stressed and upsets me.

My question is how do I gradually stop breastfeeding as I understand you can’t just stop as I will still produce milk.

I know some of you may not agree with my decision but it’s my personal decision and feel it is right for

thanks
Sarah

 

[Lunabuma]

Hi love, I chose to stop using a mix of breast pump and formula by bottle. Started expressing one boob on the 6am and 8pm feeds and then feed expressed by bottle on the late evening feed. After doing this for a few days I kept expressing but switching the evening bottle feed for a formula feed and freezing the expressed milk. This helped check he didn't have a bad reaction to formula. I did this for 2 weeks to be sure I wanted to completely stop breastfeeding without effecting my supply. I also sought help with latch etc at a local peer support group. I then introduced an early afternoon bottle feed (expressed or formula) and did this for anotger 2 weeks. I knew at this point I really wanted to stop as I was so unhappy with our feeding relationship and it was effecting our bond so added bottle feeds completely while expressing several times a day. I think I lasted a week expressing exclusively before going cold turkey which isn't advisable but felt psychologically dragging it out was painful. This is just what I did and may not be healthy but it worked for me and my son and I felt I have him as much as I could before it became too much. He was just as fussy on a bottle so be ready for this but it really helped and I felt like I loved him again once the stress of breastfeeding was over.