There is still considerable debate as to when breastfeeding should be stopped. While breast is best, especially in the first year of baby’s life, at some point your baby or toddler has to give up breast milk. It is usually accepted that stopping breastfeeding altogether by the age of 2 years will be suitable as it will not deprive your baby of any essential nutrition. However some mothers choose to breastfeed till the age of 3 years and this is not necessarily a negative undertaking. Persisting beyond this point could be considered harmful to your young child’s social and emotional development, although the odd suckling, even if you are not producing any milk should not be reprimanded.

Breast engorgement can cause the breast to be very swollen and painful and may cause a slight fever. Unfortunately, engorged breasts can cause difficulty breastfeeding as it may cause the nipples to flatten out and the infant may not be able to latch on to get breast milk.

Many women treat their engorged breasts by using ice packs in between feedings and applying heat and massaging the breast to express a small amount of breast milk just before feeding time.

However, if your breasts are overproducing breast milk, the breast pump is the best treatment to relieve your symptoms. A breast pump is simply a device used to extract milk from the breasts.