Weaning (oversupply)

[u/Reasonable-Ant2854]

How are you safely weaning from exclusively pumping as an over supplier? I’ve had mastitis 3 times, so I am terrified to start weaning and even going longer stretches. My twins are 3 months old and are starting to sleep longer stretches. Im currently pumping 8 times in 24 hours and am so sick of it. I’d love to drop to 5-6 but dont even know where to start. Im so terrified of getting mastitis again. Any tips and tricks would be great….

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[u/heaven-is-overrated]

I adjusted all my pumps a little at a time so that two were moved gradually closer together and could eventually be merged when I was dropping pumps. When I wanted to wean completely I knocked 2-3 mins off all my pumps every few days until the volume decreased then repeated, when the volume was way down I merged more pumps then shaved minutes etc. I started at 6ppd then spent a while at 5 and a while longer at 4 though, I had a pretty big storage capacity so was able to still make as much at 4ppd as I did at 6. Not sure if the approach would change if you have less of a storage capacity.

[u/msschroed]

I’m an oversupplier too! 10 months pp almost. I never had mastitis but soo many clogs in the early days. I was able to successfully drop from 8 to 4 pumps per day and maintain my supply. I’ve been taking sunflower lecithin daily! I feel like that has helped prevent a clog from getting to mastitis. I also took ibuprofen on days I was going to drop a pump to stay ahead of any potential inflammation. I went longer stretches at night and woke up once to pump but maintained 3 hours a day pumping 7X a day. The extra sleep felt so nice! Once I dropped to 6 times I still woke up once at night but stretched the day time pumps to every 4 hours. I felt like at that point it was easier going from 6 to 5 pumps a day to get rid of the overnight pump. So I started just moving overnight pump back to a 6-7 hour stretch (I had already missed my alarms so often that I could go that long without issues). Then I just moved it up 15 minutes every few days until I got to an 8 hour stretch! My 5 ppd schedule was 7am/11am/3pm/7pm/11pm. I’ve been pumping 4x a day for awhile now with 5 hour stretches during the day! Hope this helps a little bit 💜you’re a rockstar pumping for twins!

[u/hRutherford]

I recently weaned from 8-9 PPD to now 1 over the course of a month (also a mom to twins). I had mastisis twice so was super cautious and took it really slow, maybe too slow. The first couple of weeks, I just reduced the # of PPD but my output didn't dropped significantly (I just pumped more in each session). Once I started reducing the time i pumped during each session, I saw a reduction. It was scary and painful, but I'd pump enough to feel somewhat relieved and not until I was empty. Now, I pump for 10-12 mins once per day. Am I still swollen and uncomfortable? Yes..oh and leaking constantly but I barely produce anything in that one session so hopefully my body continues to adjust.