breast milk

[hannah457]

its a daft question.
i breast feed my son for the first 2 months.
i stopped because i found it hard and excausting that was 5 months ago.
the thing is when he crys i still leak milk, is it normal or should it have stopped by know ??.
love hannah xx

[Veritee]

Well it seems normal to me !!

I have to admit I fed caja until she was nearly 3 and I leaked milk like this until she was actually about 6 years old !

We have to remember that in our society if we do breast feed we do it for a lot less time than our bodies are actually geared up to do it for, - probably because it is exhausting and for many it is hard and because we have alternatives we take them to make it easier for ourselves

- and why not it is personal choice and up to each mother to do whatever she feels happiest with.

But the fact your stop brest feeding does not necessarily mean your body stops producing milk before it is ready to - some women dry up quite quickly, but many do not and have milk for a long time, even years.

I am unusual these days in breast feeding for so long, although my mother always breast fed until we were at least 2 pr longer , tyhis si unusual these days-

I did it because Caja was a very small baby and continued never to meet her centiles - until she was about 3 she was much too small for her age - and reluctant to eat - I felt as she did take the breast so well it was the best for her to continue .

( also the fact that most of our family is intolerant to cows milk was a factor

- My older brother has never been able to drink it at all and both his children can have problems with milk. One was admitted to great Ormond street for severe milk intolerance and could not even take breast milk , which really was a problem, But the problem does not seem to be lactose intolerance but something else in the milk.

I can drink it a little but cheese yogurt and whey makes me very, very sick so I drink soya and avoid cheese etc

although I gave Caja the choice once she was weened and she had cows mild at school etc she now at 16 chooses to drink soya instead as cows milk does not agree with her especially if it is the slightest bit turned it makes her ill.

I was not sure when she was a baby if she did have problems with cows milk when she was young but she did sick up any formula we gave her and often did not even take it at all so I stuck to breast although there were many times I wished I could give her a bottle!!

I too found it exhausting and actually I think the longer I fed the more ill with PNI I was and really only started to recover when I stopped breast feeding)

Therefore when she was a baby factors like this meant that to continue breast feeding for longer than most .

But my point is that through doing this I did realize that my body was well adjusted physically to the demands of breast feeding ( it was just my mental state that found it hard) and my body was prepared to breast feed for this length of time and I could have gone on for a few years more.

and I did a lot of reading about it also at the time and learned that many believe that psychologically we are set up to feed on average until our babies are about 5 years but for many reasons in western society, at least, we rarely do this.

So I have to say that to still be getting milk when your baby cries at 5 months seems perfectly normal to me!

It will stop eventually although it can take quite a while after you stop feeding , or even some years.

You can get diuretic tablets to dry it up but I would not recommend this as it does not always work and puts a strain on your kidneys etc

and as to make milk is perfectly harmless, there is no need to do anything about it.

all the best

Veritee

[newwie]

HI
I still leak milk after two years of having my daughter and i didnt breast feed at all so maybe we are all different, still to this day if whne im checking my breasts for lumps i can still get milk out wierd really doesnt leak but stilll there.
Newwie

[yoyo]

I still get milk too - but just in one breast! odd.

[Veritee]

I think it is normal
Some women have milk for years after birth

Thats what a wet nurse was

- before the invention of formula when a baby would often die if its mother did not or could not feed the baby or at least 3 month as the only alternative was ordinary cows milk, which new Born's do not tolerate well.

a wet nurse would then be employed

She was a woman who still had milk despite the fact the birth of her own child might have been years before and therefore made her living breast feeding others babies - it was a real asst for a woman to be like this as it was a good living and comparatively well paid and so necessary it afforded status .

( of course some well off women choose not to feed and a wet nurse was the alternative others couldn't feed or the mother died at the birth)

I am full of odd womens history facts as i once did a course in womens history still and I take an interest.

Any one of us who has milk in any breast without stimulation would probably make great wet nurses as the stimulus of a new born sucking and the milk would flow as before.

Oh well
an invention of men - formula milk - did women out of yet another form of gainful employment......

just joking - just like the vacuum cleaner was invented by a man but I would not want to go back to before the existed!!

[hannah457]

thanks all.
im glad that its not just me i started to thing i had something wrong with my breasts.
thanks for the reasurrance

hannah xx