I can still express a little milk

[mimim]

And my youngest child weaned over 3 years ago. I wonder how long it will be before it's completely dried up.

I know there have been threads on this before, but for those of you that have stopped nursing, how long was it before you couldn't express a few drops still?

[Llyra]

The trouble with this is that as long as you keep expressing a few drops here and there, your breast will take that as "demand," and will often keep producing those few drops that the "demand" seems to be asking for. In my experience, it doesn't stop until you go a really long time without expressing, even a few drops "just to see."

This happened to me with DD1-- i kept on expressing a few drops, once in a while, to see if they were still there. It wasn't until I got pregnant again, and was too sore to try expressing, that the drops finally dried up. This second time around, I got wise, and didn't keep on trying for drops, and so I stopped producing entirely a lot sooner.

[mimim]

Oh, I hadn't tried to express any for months. The only "demand" that has happened in the last few years has come from sexual interaction. I guess that's enough? I'm not worried about it. I just think it's kind of amazing and cool that I'm still producing a little bit after so many years.

[Llyra]

Yeah, I think it would still count as "demand!" I always kind of thought it was cool, too. My mom has a friend who kept on producing a few drops, here and there, until her kids were teenagers. My mom used it as an argument for why her friend was a lunatic hippie, but I think it's kind of interesting that it can happen.

[sharita]

My mother is almost 50 and hasn't breastfed since 1985 and still gets a few drops without even trying to from time to time.  When she told me I thought she was crazy but my midwife says she heard of that before.  Crazy!

[miche28]

Sometimes this is caused by a prolactinoma - a benign tumour that usually doesn't matter much, except that the high levels of prolactin may make it hard to get pregnant.

http://www.kellymom.com/bf/supply/galactorrhea.html

[mimim]

Originally Posted by miche28 

Sometimes this is caused by a prolactinoma - a benign tumour that usually doesn't matter much, except that the high levels of prolactin may make it hard to get pregnant.

http://www.kellymom.com/bf/supply/galactorrhea.html

Good! I never ever want to be pregnant again!!

Actually that link just informed me that it's pretty normal and not likely to be any tumors or anything. I was nursing for 6 years consecutively until 3 years ago and I've had some non-nursing stimulation off and on since then.