Hi all,

I have to stop EBF for 40 days due to medication. My options are to wean to formula OR pump and dump until my LO (9wks old) can take my breast milk again.

Ideally the latter but I had a bad experience exclusive pumping when I was resting a cracked nipple recently so not sure. The pump just didn’t seem to empty the breast adequately and I had a huge lump that was very uncomfortable after just over 24hrs. I tried using hot compress, massaging, changing sitting position to allow more gravity assist. In the end I had to give my LO the breast for my own relief even though the nipple wasn’t healed as much I would have liked yet. I pumped whenever I had fed the other side and for equally as long. Tried for longer when things started to get quite painful toward the end but it didn’t help much.

So, how could I exclusively pump without ending up with mastitis?? I’m using the Spectra2 and have been comfortable with it so far for working on my freezer stash.

Any thoughts would be great. Thanks so much!