Do I need to express the milk completely when I'm weaning?

In life, many mothers choose to breastfeed their babies, but after a period of time, because the mothers have to go to work and the children are getting older, the milk may not be enough for the children. At this time, they need to add some complementary foods to the children. Some mothers will wean their babies after adding complementary foods. So, do they need to squeeze out the milk before weaning the children?

Breastfeeding mothers should all understand this: once weaning is stopped, breast milk is no longer of any use. While they are sad (they can no longer have such close contact with their babies, woohoo~), they also have to figure out how to deal with the "residual milk" that makes them suffer.

When I was weaning, my breasts were so swollen with milk that they felt like stones at the end of the day! I feel unwell all over! I didn't dare touch or squeeze it, and I couldn't sleep at night because of the pain. The next day, I felt like there was no place for the milk to store, and I should be able to squeeze out some, so I went to the hospital for a simple unblocking (because it was too hard, I couldn't squeeze out a drop of milk by myself... I was so sad). After squeezing out most of the milk, my breasts felt "relieved", it was a really refreshing feeling, and they never swelled into stones again.

1-2 months after weaning, there is still milk that can be squeezed out occasionally, but I haven't squeezed it anymore. As long as you don't feel uncomfortable, just ignore it. Later, I gradually ran out of milk.

In fact, milk is a type of body fluid, just like our saliva and blood. The human body is very intelligent, and the milk remaining in the breasts will gradually be absorbed by our body. The claims that leftover milk is poisonous and will spoil in the body are nonsense and have no scientific basis.

During the weaning period, it is very uncomfortable to have breast engorgement. If your breasts are as hard as rocks like mine, you need to squeeze out some milk as soon as possible. As long as you don't feel too uncomfortable, it's fine.

Reduce stimulation to the breasts so that the body will receive the signal "I no longer need breast milk" and slowly stop secreting milk. If you continue to squeeze out the remaining milk during the weaning period, it is equivalent to continuing to send the signal "I still need breast milk!" to the body, and milk will continue to be secreted. This is simply the rhythm of continuing breastfeeding.

If the mother wants to wean as soon as possible, she can eat some milk-reducing foods such as barley sprouts and malt to help reduce milk supply;

Generally speaking, within a week to a month, the milk will stop flowing and stop swollen. If there is no milk at all, it may take longer.

When weaning, pay attention to limiting the intake of soup and water;

Hot compress can make the milk blockage in the breast duct unblocked, and ice compress after hot compress can relieve discomfort;

During weaning, massaging the breasts in circles every day can help relieve pain.