Going from 1/day to none (BFing)

[Melaine]

So a couple weeks ago we cut back to one feeding and tonight I skipped it. DS didn't ask or anything, so I think we are good on that front. But will I have to pump or will I be ok? I have never pumped with DS (well, since the jaundice 36 hour pump) and I actually don't have one. Can I manually express some tomorrow or will I even need to? I am clueless.

[Snow mom]

I think it varies by individual. DD weaned rather slowly at about 20 months (by slowly I mean we had a slow taper of dropping feedings). I never had to pump or was uncomfortable. With DS (now 10 months) I still leak and get engorged even though I was long over that with DD by this age. I wouldn't be surprised if weaning him goes differently. But the main point is you should only express a little bit of milk if you are uncomfortable and only enough to make you comfortable. You want your body to know that it doesn't need to produce milk.

[LMPC]

DD weaned slowly at 18 mo. When she stopped nursing before bed entirely I didn't have to do anything. I agree this probably varies person to person...so I would just play it by ear :)

[mmommy]

You really don't want to pump. That would signal your body to produce more. If you get uncomfortable, just express a little manually to ease the engorgement.

[Melaine]

Ok thanks. All seems fine this morning. He didn't even ask this when he woke up although it was ridiculously early. Can't believe this is over!!!

[egoldber]

I think it would be easy to just stop if you wanted.

But FWIW, when younger DD got to be over 18 months, I went away several times for long weekends (without her). She didn't ask for it while I was away, but when I got back she would nurse again. And when she finally did wean, she went through a period of time where she would go a day or two in between and then ask to nurse again. Then one time she didn't ask again for a couple weeks, and I told her it was all done.

[Beth24]

I never pumped when I weaned DS3 at age 3. And I just went cold turkey from 2 to 3 times a day to nothing. I was surprised but I never got engorged or even uncomfortable.