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Quitting pumping but still want to BF?

RDK24RDK24 member
in Breastfeeding
Just curious about this … My LO is 6 months and all is going well with EBF 4x/day. I have good supply LO is happy and gaining weight like a champ. But once she hits 1 year I'm considering being done with pumping (hate it) and nursing first thing in the AM and before bed.

Was wondering how easy it is to do this. If you have no supply issues and slowly take the pumping sessions down before eliminating, does your supply just regulate for two nursing sessions a day? Do people ever have trouble making enough milk for those two sessions? TIA.
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Re: Quitting pumping but still want to BF?

  • mexicolombianamexicolombiana member
    Your milk totally regulates.  This is exactly what many women do.  I actually kept pumping a bit past a year but then called it quits at about 13 months.  It was GREAT! We nurse whenever she wants and whenever I'm with her but it was fine!




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  • RDK24RDK24 member
    mexicolombiana said:
    Your milk totally regulates.  This is exactly what many women do.  I actually kept pumping a bit past a year but then called it quits at about 13 months.  It was GREAT! We nurse whenever she wants and whenever I'm with her but it was fine!
    I'm so encouraged to hear that, thank you! It's nice to think that I only have 5-ish months to go with the pump but than can nurse when I'm home with my LO :)
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  • hrhone328hrhone328 member
    We just cut down to morning and night nursing and formula during the day. I was having supply issues with pumping and just decided it wasn't worth fighting anymore. LO is 10 months. We still nurse morning and night and my supply seems to be okay so far. As long as you drop 1 nursing/pumping session at a time, your supply will regulate. I dropped 1 pumping session a week and then waited 2 weeks before I dropped the last one. I am so happy to be done with pumping.
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  • RDK24RDK24 member
    theresat858 said:

    RDK24 said:
    Just curious about this … My LO is 6 months and all is going well with EBF 4x/day. I have good supply LO is happy and gaining weight like a champ. But once she hits 1 year I'm considering being done with pumping (hate it) and nursing first thing in the AM and before bed.

    Was wondering how easy it is to do this. If you have no supply issues and slowly take the pumping sessions down before eliminating, does your supply just regulate for two nursing sessions a day? Do people ever have trouble making enough milk for those two sessions? TIA.
    I'm confused...your LO is 6 months old and you're only feeding her 4 times a day?  That isn't nearly enough given that all of her calories should be coming from breastmilk... Or do you mean you are BFing 4x/day and she is getting bottles for several other feedings a day? (whether they are pumped breastmilk or formula). 

    At one year, I stopped pumping at work and started only BFing LO when we were together - 3x/day for a while (mornings, after I got home from work, before bed) and now 2x/day. I have no idea what my supply is and I don't care - which is the awesome part about extended BFing. LO gets enough when she nurses to be satisfied, but most of her calories come from foods or whole cows milk. (mostly food, she drinks at most 8 ounces of WCM a day).

    Nope, @theresat858, my LO is 6 months old, EBF and has 4 feedings a day: all nursing when I'm home, and when I'm at work, she does 2 nursing sessions and two 7 or 8-oz bottles of breast milk while in daycare. 

    She's absolutely getting the calories she needs -- I've discussed this at length with both her pedi and my LC. She's gaining weight like a champ and is the picture of good health.

    My kid just eats a lot per feeding and I didn't put her on a schedule -- she's just been this way for some time now. Both the pedi and LC confirmed that while many BF babies max out at 4-5 oz/feeding, that is not a hard and fast rule. Mine takes in a lot of milk per feed. We've done weighted feedings too to confirm it. 
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  • RDK24RDK24 member
    theresat858 said:

    At one year, I stopped pumping at work and started only BFing LO when we were together - 3x/day for a while (mornings, after I got home from work, before bed) and now 2x/day. I have no idea what my supply is and I don't care - which is the awesome part about extended BFing. LO gets enough when she nurses to be satisfied, but most of her calories come from foods or whole cows milk. (mostly food, she drinks at most 8 ounces of WCM a day). 

    Thanks, this is helpful. I don't know much about extended BF -- when I was pregnant I figured I'd breast feed for 3-6 months and be done but now that I'm actually doing it, I want to EBF until 1 year and then maybe add cow's milk when I'm working and continue to nurse morning and night until LO self-weans.
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  • vvvvvfeevvvvvfee member
    you should be fine. i had the same concern about supply when I stopped pumping. I stopped pumping at work when DS was about 14 months and i am continuing to nurse with no problems (DS is now 17 1/2 months). i was down to one pumping session a day when I stopped. i am still nursing him in the morning and twice in the evening on work days and on demand on weekends/holidays.
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  • RDK24RDK24 member
    theresat858 said:
    @RDK24

    I'm glad you're ok with your baby being significantly overfed from the bottle at daycare..that doesn't work for most moms and I wouldn't recommend it. Smaller more frequent feedings are healthier for babies. 
    Yeah, your kid is gaining weight - I wouldn't doubt that with being overfed with 8 ounce bottles! but that doesn't mean it's healthy.
    @theresat858 I'm not talking about most moms and I'm not recommending anything to anyone else. I'm doing what works for my kid, based on her cues. 

    She's steadily gained weight since the beginning. She is not being overfed. Babies need 24-30 oz/day until 1 year. My baby eats 4x a day, roughly 7 oz per feeding. That's 28 oz. Do the math: not overfeeding. 

    And it's not up to daycare how she eats. Through lots of trial and error, we figured out that this is what's best for her. She doesn't eat 4x a day like clockwork. If she needs to cluster feed or comfort nurse, or feed on demand, we do that too. But more often than not, she's happiest eating a larger amount 4x or so a day. 

    Coming onto a message board and telling other people how to feed their kids, who you've never met … interesting. 

    Babies are individuals and every BF relationship is different. I didn't ask for your advice on how to feed my kid, by the way. I trust myself as a mother, and my baby's doctor to know what's best for her. 
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  • OntheWaterOntheWater member
    My DD, I think, will end up like yours, OP. She has 6 loonnnggg feedinfs per day and I struggle to get the 6th in, she's so uninterested. She's 5.5 months now and I've been fighting her cue to drop a feeding for a while now. Pedi thinks she just has large feedings and doesn't need as many. She's happy, she's gaining, she has more than enough wet diapers, etc. glad to hear someone else has success with this type of baby-made schedule!!
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  • RDK24RDK24 member
    @onthewater I personally think that it may not be the norm, but if you follow an EBF baby's lead when it comes to feedings AND your pedi thinks all is well then you're doing a great job. :)
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  • jennyelfjennyelf member
    edited January 2014
    Been nursing just morning and night since LO was 12 months (he's 21 months now) and it hasn't been a problem. I went away for a weekend and did find I had to pump at least once a day or else I got really uncomfortably full.
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  • numbersgirl08numbersgirl08 member
    @RDK24 my LO is 6.5 months and nurses 5x a day - I fought her for awhile to get 6 in and then dropped one, after talking to my ped, around 6 months.  Now I'm fighting her to get that 5 one in but I haven't dropped it yet.  I don't understand the concern that was mentioned by pp - it's drilled into our heads to nurse on demand, but all of a sudden when the demand doesn't fit what someone else thinks is the norm it's bad?  My LO is also gaining well and by all accounts is healthy and getting the nutrition she needs.

    I say that as long as we are nursing on demand, baby is gaining well and seems healthy, there are no issues with supply, then that sounds like a GREAT breastfeeding relationship, whether that is nursing 4x/day or 12x/day.

    And I have no answer to your actual question since we aren't there yet. Just got a little worked up on the opinion that there was anything wrong with how you are nursing :)
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  • Annie121Annie121 member
    I think you should be fine. I stopped pumping at about 4 months because I was at home with her so whenever she needed it I was there. I pumped the first four months and built up my supply for emergencies then. Her feedings have gone down and my body has adjusted to only when she needs it, and my supply has not gone down at all, actually if she doesn't eat within her "usual" time, my boobs start to hurt and swell up.
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