My name is Sandra. I had my son 4 months ago and I had decided not to breastfeed and my milk dried up after a couple of weeks. But I just notice a last night that I was starting to leak again. I took 2 pregnancy tests and they both came back negative. Im not sure what to do about it. I was wondering if you knew why I would be leaking if the tests came back negative. I don't know what to do. Can you help. And I was also wondering how to help my son sleep through the night. I have tried everything and nothing is working. I don't know if I am doing something wrong or if he isn't comfortable enough. Please help me. I don't know what to do.

Thanks so much,
Sandra

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Originally Posted by MOMMA4EVER

My name is Sandra. I had my son 4 months ago and i had decided not to breastfeed and my milk dried up after a couple of weeks. But i just notice a last night that i was starting to leak again. I took 2 pregnancy tests and they both came back negative. Im not sure what to do about it. I was wondering if you knew why i would be leaking if the tests came back negative. I dont know what to do. Can you help. And i was also wondering how to help my son sleep through the night. I have tried everything and nothing is working. I dont know if i am doing something wrong or if he isnt comfortable enough. Please help me. I dont know what to do.

Thanks so much,
Sandra

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Hi Sandra... welcome to AMHD!

The leaking may occur for quite sometime, even though you didn't breastfeed to begin with, due to the recent pregnancy.

Does it leak without any stimulation or do you notice it only when your breasts are stimulated? Either way, it can still occur. Some women will even be able to express a few drops months and years after childbirth.

However, it may also be due to higher than normal prolactin levels that usually will have gone done enough by now since you aren't breastfeeding. If you have been stressed, even the lack of quality sleep for a period can be enough, prolactin levels can rise.

Any pain or fullness feeling? You can try a few things... frozen veggies once in awhile on them, cabbage leaves in your bra for a few hours a day (room temp is fine), sounds odd, I know, but it works for some women to stem the flow. Avoid stimulating the breasts as much as possible. Do not bind them as was once recommended, this can lead to blocked milk ducts and mastitis. Wear a good support bra but preferably not an underwire bra until you no longer have any leaking as this too can result in blocked milk ducts.

If they continue to actually leak after trying some of the suggestions, might want to check with your doctor as they may want to do a check on your prolactin levels. They will also likely do a blood test to definitely rule out another pregnancy. Sometimes urine tests don't pick it up right away, and pregnancy would be one of the more common causes for it starting up.

How often does your son wake to be fed? How often does he eat throughout the day? What is his current weight and, on average, how much does he take in a 24 hour period? Was he sleeping a longer stretch previously and is now up more often? He may still need a night feeding, but you might be able to get a decent stretch either before it or after it.

Some ideas that may help:

*establish a bedtime routine... bath, jammies, fed, rocked, bed
*try to wake him if he is sleeping a longer stretch during the day... no more than 2 hours at a time for example.
*do not add anything to his bedtime bottle
*make sure he is fully awake before you go in at night... sometimes they will toss and turn, make noise, even cry a bit, then settle back down.
*keep night time feeds matter of fact... low light, little interaction, change diaper, feed, burp, back to bed.
*have regular tummy time and play time with him during the day... if the weather is nice, have daily walks
*see if you can sooth him when he wakes at night without picking him up... give it a few minutes and see how it goes
*if he is learning any new skills, rolling over for example, that can often cause babies to wake more for a bit

Much of it is trying something for awhile and seeing if it works for your baby. If there was one way that worked for all of them you wouldn't see so many books on getting babies to sleep!

Hearing an infant cry probably stimulates lactation in the way that a burning building stimulates adrenaline. We aren't so far from our primitive ancestors who behaved mostly on instinct.
A famous child psychologist did a documentary about getting children to sleep through the night or at least go back to sleep if they wake up. They set up cameras in the babies' rooms and had one parent come in and stand above the child briefly but not pick him up. It worked after about 4 or 5 nights in general. Cry for a minute, go back to sleep.
I assume that you have good information already on the right kind of diet to substitute for your milk. You might want to look into all the arguments for mother's milk if you haven't yet.