My toddler has been nursing 1-2 times a day for the last few months. He's had a viral infection for a few days now which has made him not want to nurse at all for the last 2 days. I'm worried that my supply will dry up but I don't have a pump to express the milk. How long does have you gone without nursing and then returned to nursing successfully?
I'm still nursing a 3 and a half year old. He's spent a whole week at Grandma's before and come back and resumed nursing. I do NOT pump when he's gone (except to hand express for comfort) because I've been totally ok with him weaning since he was 18 months old. He always nurse's A LOT though the first day or two after coming home so that probably immediately rebuilding any supply I've lost....
My son went 2 full weeks without nursing at age 1 1/2, I had to have emergency surgery, did not pump, and he was able to start nursing again successfully.
Hope your son feels better soon.
My 1.5 yr old went 2 days without me pumping and I am pretty sure I could have gone longer. My mom tells me that when she was nursing my sister at 1.5 she went for a week without nursing while daughter was staying with grandma (grandma wasn't as much of a fan of nursing a toddler and we think was secretly hoping this was the end of it). After the week she picked it right back up. BTW I have used a manual pump and a relatively cheap pump ($35 evenflo I am not sure they make anymore) which have helped me out when needed without the expense of the "regular" machines. The manual one took a minute to get the hang of but at least it was super quiet without a motor :). I hope your little one feels better soon!
I read that you can easily build your supply up for about 6 weeks after stopping if you so choose. I came across this when I was looking for information about successfully weaning your baby and somewhere it said that you should be able to produce milk after stopping for up to 6 weeks so a fews days you should be fine
Good Luck
Once he starts nursing again any dwindle in your supply will come back. The main thing I would worry about is becoming engorged and getting plugged ducts.
I hope your little guy feels better soon!! That's never easy for anyone :(
Nursing is all about supply and demand, but a few days isn't going to dry you up (that can actually take months!). Nursing once or twice per day, you probably aren't producing a whole lot in the first place, but if your little one goes back to nursing, you should back in the swing of things within a few days. The general rule is 3-5 days to increase/decrease :)
