There are many mothers who in the beginning of breastfeeding look for methods and ways to increase milk production and that the baby eat what he needs, do not stay hungry and rest the necessary time (although respecting the baby's demand with effective suction is sufficient). When the months pass, the baby already eats and the weight is going well, some seek the opposite, decrease production a little so that the baby sucks less and eats more food.
Others decide that it is time to stop breastfeeding and start weaning, and in addition to starting to replace shots they think about what would be the method to produce less and less: there is the myth that a good method to achieve this is to sell the breasts, a little tight, or put on a bra one or two sizes smaller. But no, bandaging your breasts to lower milk production is not a good idea and we will explain why.
Not tightening them decreases the volume
When someone sells their breasts, do they get smaller? Does the volume decrease? When you take off the bandage, do you realize that the size of your breasts has been reduced? Does that happen if you put on a smaller bra? Do not. If someone puts on a smaller bra, what is going to be done is damage, it will take tight breasts, causing a different shape and when it is removed everything will return to naturalness. The same happens if you sell them. When removing the bandages, everything is still there.
The difference here is that we talk about women who are producing milk and this generates an increase in volume in the breasts. When they have breastfed they have them a little smaller than when they have not been for hours, and they need space to grow that little by work and grace of the milk they produce.
If the chest is bandaged or a tight bra is used, what is going to happen is that there will not be enough space to "grow" with the milk that is going to be produced yes or yes and will increase the risk that milk ends up doing "damage". If milk cannot flow properly through the mammary gland because there is something that oppresses, it can be retained in various areas and produce obstructions (which are known as engorgements). It is as if you step on a hose, or make a knot ... water begins to accumulate before the knot until it bursts. Well, in this case, what can happen is that hard areas are made of retained milk, which will then cost more to extract.
A engorgement is the first step to get a mastitis, which is the infection of the breast. Retained milk, by not leaving (or not leaving all that causes retention) begins to cause inflammation, redness, pain and finally infection, causing fever and discomfort. And if this is not solved, an abscess in the chest which is only fixed by opening it from the outside to extract the pus. Come on, that grace can come out very expensive.
If there was no risk of infection ...
Let's say nothing happens, that bandaging your chest or putting on a small bra does not put a woman's breasts at risk of infection. Does it serve to produce less milk? Well, no. If you go to a river and manage to stop its flow with a mountain of stones, does it stop lowering the water? Over there, but look for an alternative ... start filtering between the stones or find another place to keep going down.
Well this is the same. Breast milk production is a hormonal issue and although many people have tried to stop it with this method, it has not succeeded: it is considered that It is a method without scientific evidence that it works and that is why it is not recommended.
What to do then to decrease the production of breast milk?
Well breastfeed less. Bandaging your breasts would only work if they were not squeezed and when the child asked to breastfeed with the bandage on. So I could not breastfeed because I would suck a bandage and the production would begin to decrease, because The more time between shots, the lower the production (But to do this, it is better not to give or look for an alternative, rather than breastfeeding from a bandage attached to the chest).
And the milk that is being produced? You have to take it out if it bothers you, of course. Either the baby, either with an extractor, either manually. The key is to ensure that the shots are spaced and that the emptying is not total. If there is some milk left in the intake, the body considers that it is producing too much and adjusts downwards.
Therefore, when a woman is weaning, or if her son no longer sucks, it is recommended that the milk be removed until the chest stops bothering you, but no more. Thus, day by day, production decreases until the day when it no longer needs to be extracted because they no longer bother.
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In Babies and more | Weaning (I): clarifying the concept, Weaning (II): when it is the son who decides, Weaning (III): when it is the mother who decides
