how to ease pain of full breasts after birth if formula feeding

[Anonymous]

after milk comes in how to ease pain of full breasts when needing to formula feed and not breast feed. I have heard of ice packs in a sports bra, any other advice?

[Anonymous]

breastfeeding is the best relief

[Anonymous]

....or, try pump and dump?

will you NEVER breastfeed or just can't initially due to medication, etc?

[Anonymous]

Breastfeed, it's good for both of you!

[Anonymous]

Because of thyroid problem, I cannot breastfeed period. Due to a medication that I need to be on which would pass to the baby in breast milk.

[Anonymous]

Cold cabbage leaves in your bra, replace when wilted. Good luck and congratulations!

[Anonymous]

I don't want to question your decision not to nurse or make this an anti formula rant but very few medications are contraindicated in nursing. There's a great resource published by the national library of medicine called Lactmed where you can research any drug (including over the counters). Here's a link:

http://toxnet.nlm.nih.gov/cgi-bin/sis/htmlgen?LACT

[Anonymous]

Typical DCUM -- someone asks one very precise question, but instead of answering, most people insert their own semi-related, unsolicited advice. OP did not ask whether she should breastfeed. She stated very specifically that she is NOT breastfeeding. If your only advice is "try breastfeeding," why respond?

OP, I have heard that cabbage works, too. You might also try some of the disposable soothing pads that they sell at Target, Babies'R'Us, etc., that you can insert into your bra. (And don't worry about not breastfeeding. Lots of women don't/can't and it's not nearly the be-all, end-all that some breastfeeding die-hards make it out to be. It just isn't. I breastfeed but am much more in the "great if you can, fine if you don't" camp.)

[Anonymous]

It will hurt. Pump and dump will make the process last longer.

Congrats. Ignore the people who know more about your life than you do.

Enjoy the baby.

[Anonymous]

cabbage leaves are very effective. you can do cold or room temperature... avoid hot showers. also wearing a tight bra though uncomfortable will help.
put cabbage leaves 3 to 5 times a day for 20 minutes each time.

[Anonymous]

I did cold compresses, advil and cold showers. It didn't last long.

Ignore the crazies above - enjoy your baby and take care of yourself. Best of luck to you!!!

[Anonymous]

It might be best to relieve the engorgement by pumping and dumping (just use the hospital pump the first two days so you don't have to bother with rentals). Once you pump to relieve (and no more else you'll create a supply & demand relationship) then turn to the aggressive measures of cabbage leaves.

Also, allowing your body to produce and pump out the milk (pseudo-breast feeding) will help bring the uterus back down to normal size and help reduce blood vessel restriction (some of the bleeding) quicker.
So you may want to consider pumping for a day or two and then quit.

It'll be tough. Sometimes the sound of your baby crying and the fluctuating hormones may cause you to leak. Since you have about two or three days before you milk comes in I would also consult with an LC to work with you specifically. Your doc. may also prescribe something to help you dry up quicker (although your thyroid medicine may intefere).

Good luck.

[Anonymous]

birth control pills will work to dry the milk up -- not the mini pill -- the regular one

[Anonymous]

Instead of pumping (which can stimulate production), it's better to manually express just enough to take the edge off.

Cabbage leaves works great.

Sorry OP !

[Anonymous]

You may not even get to the point where you have a problem if you don't allow your child to start BF immediately. I tried to breastfeed, but my DD didn't suckle correctly and never got out anything. It basically caused my body not to really even start any milk production. I never had any engorgement and my milk never came in (even though I wanted it!). I agree with the PP that pumping and dumping might make your body think it needs to produce milk and make the problem worse.

Don't let them make you feel guilty about formula, in the end I had to do it too. From what I understand pretty much our entire generation was raised on formula and we turned out OK. : )