Weaning: Smells Like Cabbage!

The weaning process is nearly complete. It has not been an easy week so far, but things are getting better. I got Dostinex from my doctor on Tuesday: a course of 4 pills, one every 12 hours which dries up the milk. I was instructed not to feed my son or to express or stimulate my boobs in any way.

For 3 nights hubby slept with our son. He slept surprisingly well and only woke up once every night. During the day on Thursday and Friday he was at creche full day.

The hardest part for me has been picking up my son or being with him, he immediately wants to latch and try to get at my boobs! Then there has been a few times where he has knocked his head against something and my immediate thought is to latch him to soothe him, so it has been a little tricky.




The other difficulty is that my boobs have been swollen, hard and leaky since Wednesday night! I thought this was normal and tried to carry on as best I could (stinking with a bra stuffed full of frozen cabbage leaves) but it just got progressively worse. I went back to my doctor yesterday and it turns out that I have mastitis and he put me on a course of antibiotics and told me to go home and pump all the milk out.

What a bittersweet experience that was! I expressed over 300ml of milk and immediately felt better. This morning my boobs are tender but not sore. Cuddling my son this morning he got very cranky and tried to latch, we settled for a compromise. He latched onto my boob but not the nipple and sucked, I now have a little “hickie” on each boob just above the bra-line.

What has your experience been with weaning? What worked for you?

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7 comments

  1. This is s very traumatic procedure for both baby and mommy and personally I wish to have done it when he turned a year old, He is 3 now and still I cannot find a line of negotiation with this boy 🙁

  2. This sounds very hard and tricky. My baby is only 5 month sold. I have no idea when to start this process and am not looking forward to it.
    It’s so easy to sooth and settle them when they are breast fed. So I’m in for quite the task hey! 🙂

  3. My daughter never really wanted to breast feed. She was spoiled by the hospital where she was born. They forced her onto formula while I slept and it was a battle to even get her to feed a few months. I have such intense painful memories over that. 🙁

    So weaning the breast was no problem. It was weaning from bottle that gave us a real fight. She did not want to give that up at all, even long after time when she stopped needing a bottle and was on solid foods.

  4. My daugher is 3 in a month and stil breast feeding I’m to mush of a softy to say no to her.is there anything els I can try? I’ve even tried alo vera but it did’nt work.any advice?

    • Oh shame Shantel, I know what you mean, it is so hard isn’t it? I tried all the softer approaches and nothing worked at all… I wish I had a magic trick to share with you but I don’t!

  5. My baby will be 3months on the 15th of Dec and ive decided that on that day im done breastfeeding.

    I just dont have enough milk.
    She drink for a short while and then get irritated and starts crying.
    I then have to make formule bottle anyways.

  6. I havent breast feed to be able to wean so i just drank mill tablets for the little bit of milk i had just to prevent milk fever.

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