After years of breastfeeding two babies
À titre indicatif uniquement. Ce n’est pas un avis médical.
Question
After years of breastfeeding two babies back to back, I have dry eyes and insomnia, and I feel completely depleted. Can breastfeeding cause these, and will they go away after I wean? Real household: caregiver juggling school week and one elder or sibling nearby. Schedule: Mon; GP appointment possible this week. Kitchen/home right now: eye drops, prenatal vitamins. Already tried: drinking more coffee to get through the day. Please answer as a practical family-care guide: what to do next tonight/today, what to avoid, and a clear decision tree. Constraints: respect «No diagnosis, no medication changes»; no dosing kids/pets/elders yourself; no mystery powders or buying prescription meds online; keep steps screenshot-friendly under ~25 minutes where cooking/care applies. Structure your help as (1) what I already tried vs better alternatives, (2) constraints/avoid list, (3) red flags—when to stop DIY and get clinical/urgent help. Keep the voice concrete and kind for a tired caregiver; stay inside kitchen/home-care/communication levers only. Name what success looks like in 24 hours without promising cures. Avoid brand shopping lists; focus on routines, food already at home, and communication scripts caregivers can screenshot.
Réponse
Book the GP appointment this week and keep it — for dry eyes, broken sleep and feeling run-down after years of nursing, a same-week clinician is the right level, and tonight is about three small things you can actually do.
First, your question, honestly: breastfeeding can go with dry eyes and with insomnia, and many mums notice both. But "can" is not "will go away when you wean." Some women find their eyes and sleep settle in the weeks after weaning; some do not, because the tiredness that comes with years of broken sleep, low mood, anaemia, thyroid and hormone changes overlap and don't all resolve at the same moment. I am not diagnosing any of that here, and I can't promise the weaning date will turn the switch. What I can tell you is that the appointment you can get this week is where that gets sorted — and the three things below are worth doing while you wait for it, because they cost you almost nothing and they work whether or not breastfeeding is the cause.
1. What you've already tried, and what does more
| What you're doing | Why it's understandable | What does more this week |
|---|---|---|
| More coffee to get through the day | The only fast lever in the house at 6am. It works for about an hour and then it charges you interest. | Keep the same total amount for now — don't cut cold, that gives you a withdrawal headache on top of everything. Just move the last cup to before mid-afternoon and stop there. You are not removing the ritual, you are removing the part that lands at 11pm. |
| Eye drops you already own | Sensible, when the eyes sting. | Bring the bottle to the appointment, in the bag, not in the cupboard — the name on the label is half the answer, and an old or opened-too-long bottle is worth saying out loud. |
| Prenatal vitamins | Worth keeping on. | Bring that bottle too, and say the words "I have been breastfeeding for years" in the first minute. Some of what you are describing gets picked up by simple blood tests, and the vitamins can be part of the picture, not a separate thing. |
| Planning to wean as the fix | It is the finish line you can see from here. | Wean at a pace you can hold, and do not attach the whole recovery to that one date. Do the appointment and the caffeine timing first; the weaning plan can be a separate conversation with someone who can look at both of you. |
| Pushing through the day | There is a school week and people at home depending on you. | One protected 20 minutes is cheaper than a whole day of white-knuckling it. It needs a second pair of hands, not willpower — that is the one thing worth asking for out loud, using the line below. |
Tonight, about 20 minutes, in three parts:
- Caffeine (2 min). Put the last cup of the day before mid-afternoon. Nothing caffeinated after that, including tea and energy drinks, is the single change most likely to help your night. Water or a warm drink instead for the evening shift.
- One 20-minute handover (10 min to arrange, 20 min to actually get). Not a nap if you can help it — just lying down with the door shut and no one needing you. Here is the sentence to send: *"I'm not well tonight and I need twenty minutes where I'm not needed. Can you take the after-school and bath for twenty minutes? I'll do the rest of it."* Most people answer yes to a specific 20 minutes; they answer no to "can you just help me more."
- Eyes (2 min, twice). A cool clean cloth on the closed eyes for a few minutes, and a screen break every so often — looking away and blinking fully, not just closing them. Wash hands before and after touching the face, and use your own towel and pillowcase. It's small, and it is the one thing on the eye card that is genuinely yours to do at home.
2. Constraints and the avoid list
- No diagnosis from me, and no medication change from you. Starting, stopping or changing anything — the drops, the vitamins, anything a pharmacist offers — is the prescriber's or pharmacist's call, not this page's. That is not me dodging; it is the rule that keeps you safe.
- Don't cut the coffee off suddenly. Move it earlier first, then step down. Abrupt removal gives headache and irritability, which is the opposite of what tonight is for.
- Don't put leftover or shared drops in the eye beyond what the label or a clinician has told you, and never a steroid drop bought for something else. If a drop stings badly or the eye is very red, that is a same-day question, not a home experiment.
- No powders, no mystery supplements, nothing bought online without a local prescription. If a well-meaning person brings you a "milk booster" or a "hormone balance" powder, leave it in the packet and bring the packet to the appointment. Unlabelled is not mild.
- Don't decide the weaning date in a bad week. Weaning is a real decision with a baby in it; make it with the appointment in hand, not as a treatment for a symptom.
- Don't let a tired day become a missed appointment. If the week slips, rebook within days rather than letting it drift — the value of this visit is the appointment, not the week it lands in.
- Say "I feel completely depleted" out loud to a clinician. That sentence is a real symptom with real checks behind it. Saying "I'm a bit tired" is what gets a vitamin D and a pat on the back.
3. Red flags — when to stop doing this yourself and get help
Call your local emergency number now, or go to your nearest emergency department, if any of these happen:
- The eye becomes painful, or light hurts, or the vision changes or blurs — or you get a curtain or dark patch moving across your sight. Dry eyes ache; a painful, light-sensitive eye is a different thing and it is time-sensitive.
- Chest pain or pressure, sudden breathlessness, a face or limb going weak or numb, slurred speech, or the worst headache of your life that peaks within seconds.
- New confusion — muddled, not yourself, drifting in and out — or fainting.
- Thoughts of harming yourself, or that you would be better off not being here, especially with any thought of a plan or a means. This is a medical emergency, not a private matter, and it is the one item on this page I would not want you sitting on until Monday. If it comes, tell someone in the house tonight and call for help rather than waiting.
- After a birth or with a pregnancy on the way: not sleeping at all for nights, hearing or seeing things that are not there, or feeling you might harm yourself or the baby — same-day to emergency help, and do not be alone with the baby.
Same day, not an emergency — call the clinic or an urgent appointment:
- One eye is much worse than the other, or there is discharge and it is building.
- The tiredness has a specific point where you are struggling to stay awake to drive, cook safely, or handle the baby.
- You cannot eat, or you are losing weight without trying, or the insomnia has been going most nights for a fortnight.
- You feel low or hopeless most of the day, most days, and it is not lifting.
Your decision tree, in four steps:
- *Any red flag above?* → stop the home plan, call your local emergency number or go to the emergency department. That overrides everything else on this page.
- *No red flag, but one of the same-day items?* → call the clinic today and ask for the earliest appointment, or a same-day slot.
- *Neither — just dry eyes, broken sleep and exhausted?* → do the three things tonight, get the appointment this week, and go.
- *The appointment happened and nothing has improved?* → go back with the visit sheet and say plainly what has not changed. That is a normal reason to return, not a failure.
What "good" looks like in the next 24 hours — three checkable things, no cures promised:
- You went to bed with no caffeine in your system after mid-afternoon, and you know that because it was the plan, not because you slept brilliantly.
- You got one 20-minute block where you were not needed, and someone else held the evening for it.
- The appointment is in the diary, with the drops and the vitamins in the bag, ready to go.
One night of better sleep will not fix months of broken sleep. What it can do is give you one clean data point to hand the clinician, and take the coffee out of the loop that's been keeping you awake.
The one thing I need from you: are you still nursing at the moment, and is there any chance of a pregnancy this month? It changes which doors the appointment should go through, and it is the only question I am asking you tonight — everything else is on the page.
The same page is saved as a one-pager you can screenshot and keep on the fridge: breastfeeding-eyes-sleep-tonight-b27fbc03.pdf