Question: I had my last child in May of 2006. I nursed my daughter for approx 5 months. 3 years later I am still lactating! I have tried everything from binding my breast, to putting cabbage leaves on my bra and everything in between. I have been to 3 doctors and all hormone tests are normal. It’s to the point that my breast ache. Any insight you can give would be great!
Answer: Many women lactate for more than a year, but as in your case it is 3 years after the delivery.
Natural Home Remedies To Reduce Breast Milk
- Pump the breast milk, but not to the full extent, let the signal reach the brain that your child does not need the milk as much as it is supplying. Do this regularly to see that the milk gets reduced drastically.
- Avoid stimulation of the nipples while having sexual intercourse. Avoid touching breast too often.Also wear loose clothing and supportive bra that may not stimulate nipple.
- Drink herbal tea with sage in it, it helps in drying up the milk. It is the natural remedy to stop production of breast milk. Sage contains estrogen in its natural form. When estrogen is present in optimum amount in the body, it helps to stop breast milk. Drink sage tea two to three times in a day, it may help to reduce secretion of breast milk. Instead of sage tea, tincture of sage can also be useful.
- Drink water liberally, it helps to dry the breast milk. Dehydration encourages milk production.
- Apply cold compresses to breast two to three times in a day. This will reduce blood circulation in breast and thus reduce milk secretion.
- Supplementary vitamin B6 is known to reduce production of prolactin, a hormone involved in production of milk.
- Do not bind your breast as this may cause distress and annoyance more than the benefits.
- Red meat and spicy food also reduce breast milk.
- Eating peppermint and spearmint is also found to reduce milk production.
- Jasmine is another important herb to stop breast milk. Make a paste of fresh crushed jasmine flowers. Apply the prepared paste on your breast. Jasmine has natural elements that help to reduce and stop gradually breast milk secretion.
- Take cold showers instead of hot showers as hot showers may stimulate the milk duct glands to secrete more milk.
- Drinking parsley juice regularly helps to reduce secretion of breast milk substantially.
You can try few of the above methods to stop breast milk.