Tips for Weaning off Breastfeeding Quickly

You can nurse while pregnant without it causing any trouble to either child. Sometimes your milk supply might lessen, but often not for the first few months at least. If you decide to wean, I would keep the organic milk up, but offer it in a Born Free sippy cup. You can get a softer spout, which still feels nice to kids. And slowly, once she's ready, transition her to a harder spout.

The Born Free cup is easy to drink out of, BPA-free, and doesn't spill. The valve is not vacuum-based, so it's much better for kids' ears and feels more soothing to them when drinking. For easy transitions, I highly recommend it! Also, it's apparently very normal for kids to go on a "sippy cup strike" when first transitioning. My friend's baby did this. But after a couple of days, he started drinking again and never had a problem with the cup after that.

My son took to the Born Free very quickly- no strike at all! He won't take any other brands, except the NUBY, which also has a soft spout.

Good luck with your pregnancy!

1 mom found this helpful

A.-

I think Amanda P. said everything I was going to say. I so wish the medical establishment would stop frightening women about nursing (and other things) during pregnancy. I especially wish they would stop telling women that nursing takes nutrients away from the fetus. What a bunch of phooey.

You can wean if you'd like, but do it for reasons other than fear of harming your pregnancy. And as others have mentioned, your child may wean on her own. There is no need to rush it however if she does not. Eventually your milk will turn to colostrum and there won't be much there for her anyway.

As for the milk, as others have suggested try goats milk. It is more easily digested. OR, if you prefer or she prefers cows milk, try finding a farm that pastures their cows and buy RAW milk. Raw milk conatins enzymes that aid in digestion and the texture (non homogenized) is closer to your own milk's. Our 15 mo old son gets a raw milk bottle every night before bed and he loves it...won't even drink supermarket milk. He is also still nursing.

We also had to play around with different cups and bottles. He likes glass bottles (for milk only)and a dixie cup for anything else. He decided he didn't like sippy cups becuse they don't look like our glasses...he must mimic.

Good luck!

1 mom found this helpful

Hi A., I nursed through the beginning of my second pregnancy throughout the first trimester. Then, as I had been warned, my milk supply dove, and my son weaned himself because the taste and flow had changed. Just as well since I too had high risk pregnancies (fraught with pneumonia, severe asthma/sinusitis/allergies, insulin dependent gestational diabetes, as a start). My midwife encouraged me to stop nursing sooner, to protect my own immune system and therefore the fetus as well. (My son was 8 months at the end of my first trimester).

We weaned my son to a sippy cup and milk at the same time, the week before his 1st birthday. He was really mad! Here's what we did: first we watered down the milk and tried warming - didn't really help. So we did a gradual changeover: For a week, we got rid of bottles during the day, sippy cups only, with milk in them. He basically didn't drink anything except the water offered between meals, for 4 days. He still had wet diapers though so we stuck with it, and after the 4 days, he started drinking the milk just fine. The next week, we got rid of the morning bottle, and the following week we had planned to get rid of the night time bottle but he had lost interest at that point. It's been sippy cups ever since. We HAD to get rid of the bottle because his sister would be arriving in less than 6 weeks and we didn't want to be dealing with jealousy about bottles for those few times we would have to use them with pumped milk. Since you've barely used the bottle up to this point, I would recommend skipping them altogether. Hopefully my experience helps!

My son (who is now 22 months) will not drink any yogurt smoothies, flavored milks, even juice for the most part. Some of these things may work for you though. I have a relative that mixed milk and oj and her kids love it. (Yuck, they call it "milky-juicy!") I have heard that we should be starting to introduce whole milk in really small amounts at the 9 month mark, to help with the transition. I may research more abut this and try with my daughter (who's 8.5 months now), but I haven't decided yet.

Congratulations on your pregnancy and good luck!

I think most children do not take to whole milk right away whether they were breastfed or formula fed. Trying the bottle now may backfire on you in the future, particularly if you have not given her many bottles during the first year. Try flavoring her milk in the sippy cup just a little bit. Get one of the organic yogurt drinks (eg. stonyfield makes some)and pour a little in her milk cup. It will sweeten it a little and she may be more apt to drink the milk. You can give children yogurt from nine months on so you may have already exposed her to it. Additionally, don't sweat it if she doesn't want to drink the milk for a while. Use substitutes - cheese, yogurt and other dairy products. You can make up for the milk in other ways and I bet eventually she will start to come around. Good Luck!

Just about the weaing: My little girl didn't like whole milk either. I mixed in vanilla yogurt and that worked. We had to switch her to 2% instead of whole when I try cutting back on the yogurt. She now happily drinks aboutoer 20 oz milk (at 19 months). We also tried giving her chocolate milk and strawberry milk, chocolate worked also, if you are okay with the sugar. :)

The way we weaned from nursing was to replace one nursing each week with milk, or her favorite snack at the time, bananas.

I hope that weaning is successful and you all stay healthy during the pregnancy. Sorry to hear it is off to a tough start.

Nursing while you are pregnant will not hurt your pregnancy. At this point, nursing is something that your body is used to and can accomodate for. I would just keep nursing your little one, it sounds like that is what she needs!

Best Wishes
D.

baby got the most out of nursing just before the milk came in through the 1st year.
good to go.
start introducing goat's milk, closest to breat milk.

A.,
Tandem nursing is possible, and not likely to deplete you unless you are not eating right to begin with.

However, if your Doctor has told you to wean, then by all means wean.

I don't know how much maneuvering you have to do to nurse your older baby - if you can get her used to a pillow and have her nurse on your side instead of your lap, you might get her to nurse a little longer without causing undue stress.

http://breastfeedingonline.com/newman.shtml

Another source you can search for tandem nursing is Kellymom.com

Good luck!
M.

Talk to your doctor! I was pregnant and nursing and my doctor told me that I could nurse until I was 6 or 7 months pregnant. With the complications you are having talk to your doctor and get their opinion. Make sure you are taking your vitamins, eating lots of fruits and vegetable, eating healthy and drinking A TON of water. If yoou try to quit nursing "over night" so to speak you are going to hurt and be misserable. I've also heard of women getting mastitis when stopping cold turkey. When I quit nursing both my girls ( 1 at 14 months and 2 at 18 months) I did it gradually. Take out one nursing a day for a few days , then 2 and so on. Both kids were ready and I dried up without the pain. God Bless! A.

A.,
First congrats on your pregnancy. I am also pregnant and found out when my son was 8 months old. I continued to breast feed until he was 13.5 months old. When I was ready to wean - about a year what I did was nurse in the morning and night and all other feedings mixed breast milk with whole milk at first - say 1oz whole to 3 oz breast for a day and the next day increase to 1/2 whole & 1/2 breast. My son also wasnt great with the bottle or sippy cup. BUT I did find the NUBY sippy cup (with handles) was great b/c it has a soft spout. AND it is so much better than a bottle.

I asked my OB and it is totally safe to nurse while preg you are not taking any nutrients away from the new baby. You just have to make sure you dont feel any contractions when you are nursing. You may also be tired, but who isnt with a one year old.

Sorry if I didnt answer all of your questions, but limited time b/c son is napping. Feel free to send me another message wtih any more questions.

Good luck
S.

My baby girl didn't like cows milk right away either. We did vanilla soy milk for the longest time. It is sweet so more like the breast. Best wishes with the new baby.

I nursed for the first 2-3 months of my pregnancy with baby #2. Some women nurse throughout their pregnancy and then even do tandem nursing with 2 kids. One thing that happens when you're pregnant though is that the taste of your milk will change if it hasn't already - it will start tasting salty, so some kids self-wean at that point. Mine did. You could gradually reduce the number of nursings per day, since you are pregnant you probably won't get the engorgement that women commonly do when they wean. You should take a prenatal vitamin and just try to eat really well.

Some things you could try to get your daughter to drink milk... put some different flavorings in there like Ovaltine, strawberry, chocolate, etc. Those aren't great for her but once she starts drinking the milk, you can gradually dilute the amounts of whatever you add to the milk. Also try vanilla soy milk, my daughter hated cow's milk at first but when we gave her vanilla soy milk out of a cup, she loved it. Then we started mixing soy milk with cow's milk and now she drinks mostly cow's milk. You might have to keep trying many times until she decides she likes something.

Also you could try different sippy cups or straw cups until you find one that she likes. Good luck!

Try pumping your milk and putting that in the sippi cup for now. slowly overtime mix in milk. My kids never took to a bottle. When I went back to work partime when they were 4 months old I pumped and they originally drank from a bottle. About three months later we went on vacation and were not using a bottle at all. When we returned and I went back to work they (my twins) refused to drink from a bottle. They drank from a cup (with milk I pumped) whenever I worked from that time forward without a problem.
Also I know whole milk is better because of the fat content but the taste in nothing like breast milk. Try either Soy or start with low fat/ skim and gradually mix the two.
I don't know about nursing during pregnancy though..I would get several doctors opinions

A.
You can try pumping and putting that into a cup the start mixing in whole milk a little at a time and if you can pump enough then you can start to wean. Like 1 oz to the rest breast milk then gradually put more milk in. Good luck and ask for some help if you have anyone around so you can get through this pregnancy.

I would first like to tell you to take relax. Weaning your baby is not an emergency. She is not hurting your unborn baby. At this point in nursing, her nursing is not interfering with your new pregnancy. However, she may wean herself as your milk changes. Also, your pregnancy is going to go on or not, no matter what you do. There is no evidence that taking it easy or bedrest will affect the outcome of a threatened miscarriage. As far as nutrition, all your 7 week needs is for you to eat a balanced diet, and if you can take a multivitamin or at least folic acid. Good luck and congratulations! you are doing the best that you can for your growing family.
L.