Relactation Question?

[momto1]

Hi I'm new here :) My dd weaned at 21 months. She is now just over 24 months. She wasn't nursing much in month 21 (once every 3-4 days). We are now discovering that she has a dairy allergy. We had trouble with dairy in my diet. She seemed to grow out of it. We've switched to Soy/Rice for now. But now with no mama milk and all "cow" milk we've had 4 ear infections in 3 months. And other issues. I'm thinking about trying to pump again or something, I have a Lactina on loan to a friend right now. I don't know if it's possible and I don't know where to start. She really has no interested in starting up nursing again. Any advice is welcome.

[LianeV]

Sure, you can bring your milk back. Too bad she doesn't want to nurse 'cause it would be easier than pumping. She may not want the milk you pump, either, but you won't know until you try. It won't hurt you or her so if you have the will you can do it. Same principle as always, for every suck that's sucked, that much milk is made. It probably won't take long to see results since you've not been long stopped.
Once you get some results, you might offer for her to nurse. It probably won't be a frequent thing, if she will at all. Regardless, it's not weird that you have the urge to do this and there's certainly nothing wrong with it. My experience is that many children nurse until just before school age, if they are allowed to wean gradually and with love. However, the nursing they do at that point has gone from every three or four days as you report to every six weeks or so at the end.

[hotlama]

I don't have an answer for you but I wanted to BUMP this up so others could see it.

[CherylParrott]

I have some answers...definately restart your pumping. You could certainly try some fennugreek, but most important is stimulation..it won't take long I bet. Your baby may or may not nurse again, but spending some time in your old favorite nursing places wouldn't hurt..in bed at night I bet:) If nothing else, you will be providing milk in a cup and help her belly. Remember, it can take up to 2 weeks for milk proteins to pass, so you may not see an immediate improvement in symptoms.

[momto1]

Thanks for the replies. We meet again with the allergist next Monday. If we confirm the dairy allergy I'll try going down this road. I realize that the sooner I start the more success I will have, but I'm not very excited about it. I pumped my brains out while worked 48 hour shifts bringing home a gallon of milk from work at times :) I stopped pumping around 18 months and thought I was done with it for good. My little one was never a sweet mellow cuddly nurser and became even less so as a toddler, so the idea of nursing her again kind of scares me. If I ever do it again I will not encourage a weaning before/ during a cold flu season for sure, this was a terrible error in judgement. Thanks for the support, after Monday I'll know more and set up an appointment with my lactation consultant who got me through more nursing problems than I can list over the past 2 years. She gets a gold star!