Hello
Background: DS is now 3 weeks old and a couple of days ago I decided I wanted to switch him to bottle feeding. I'd been trying to bf and first we had to overcome suction problems, then he took about 17 days to regain birth weight, and then finally I've decided there isn't time to bf him as I already have a 21 month DD running around and DS is taking about 1 1/2 to feed, then feeding again not even an hour later. So it wasn't an easy decision but DH is back at work next week, and so bottle feeding is going to be the way forward. Luckily DS takes the bottle no problem.
Question: what to do about drying up my milk supply? I have been pumping as it doesn't take long for me to get 2-3 oz, then it only takes DS about 10 minutes to feed - so he's still been getting plenty of breast milk the last few days, but much more quickly than if he were nursing! But obviously you can't pump as much as baby would get if nursing, so he's been having some bottles of formula too, till I've pumped enough to make another bottle of breast milk. I still put him to the breast for a while when I have time, e.g. when it's time for our afternoon nap and at night. But I've been getting blocked ducts (not just since i decided to switch, this has been going on for a couple of weeks), and today I got a prescription from the doctor for parlodel/bromocriptine tablets which i could use to dry my milk up in a few days. However, I'm not sure whether to take them or just carry on as I am and hope my supply starts to diminish by itself even with me pumping. Has anyone else ever taken these tablets? Or does anyone know how long might it take for my supply to dry up if I carry on pumping when needed to relieve discomfort?
Thanks
Rx
P.S. I haven't gone down the route of dropping one feed at a time and waiting a few days before dropping another, as there has been absolutely no routine up till now, and one feed blends into the next so it's hard to identify 'a feed' to be able to drop it! (I've been demand feeding only because i had problems bf with DD so I wanted to ensure a good supply this time round, if only DS wasn't such a slow eater...)
