Weaning - Albuquerque, NM

If you dont completely want to wean try and pump as much as you can before you leave. Maybe whoever is watching your baby can feed her brest milk and switch with formula.
I did that for my baby when I went out of town. When I was gone, I would pump and through what ever I had down the drain so that I wouldnt dry up. My mom gave my daughter my milk and would supliement with formula at night time.
Or that might be the best time to wean. A friend of mine went out of town for a weekend and weaned her son. Just remember you will be in pain!

How long until your trip? I dropped one feeding a month for about 4 months, once he was down to just that many feedings, and my body adjusted beautifully. When I really, really needed to, I'd pump for just a couple of minutes to relieve the fullness but not much because it will give your body the signal that you want to make more milk.

If you are going to wean, I would do it far in advance of your work trip. When I weaned, it wasn't as horribly painful as I'd heard other mom's talk about but it did hurt and I know that I was in a bit of a grumpy mood during the process because I just didn't feel "good". You're so close to the one year mark that I would try and hang in there even if it meant you had to pump and dump on your trip (as hard as that can be!).

I traveled without mine and I continued to pump during my trip and I poured out the milk so I would not lose the supply. Just an option if you decided not to wean at this time.

Oh no! Can you store your milk by freezing it!!! I have heard of doing that. You would have to pump a lot before your trip, and pump and dump during your trip to keep production up. But to me, being able to continue BF is a wonderful thing. You could even use fenugreek to try to boost capacity when you return from your trip if your production has dropped.

Do you want to do wean your child or is it simply because you will be away for a week, that you want to wean him?

If it is the latter, you can take a pump with you and pump, while away, to keep up your milk supply. That way, you can resume nursing when you return.

Also, pump before and freeze it for baby. One of my babies didn't want to nurse for a week, for whatever reason, and then he wanted to again later. I didn't want to stop nursing so I pumped to keep up my milk supply.

A great resource for FACTS for you is La Leche League. They can advise you on what the best way to stop, if that is what you want to do, along with a multitude of other q's you may have about breast-feeding.

Hello,
Weaning can be very difficult if done suddenly- it is best to d it over a much longer period of time than only a week. Nursing not only provides physical comfort but also emotional comfort- Usually babies wean themselves gradually so that the milk supply begins to decrease and revert back to colostrum to gibe your sweet baby an extra boost of your own immunity. Also, you must be cautious about your own body and be careful of not getting engorged which can be very painful. Now if your precious one is oly nursing 2 -3 times a day you maybe able to wean your little by refusing to nurse her for one of those feedings but one week is such a short time. Does your baby use a pacifier or drink out of a bottle? It would be best to bottle feed the baby during one of those 'skipped" time to still provide the physical comfort of being held. Let Dad help this before you have to go out of town.
Also you can still pump your milk and dump it while you are away- I would defiantly recommend you travel with a hand held pump just in case you get too uncomfortable duing the weaning process. Also cutting back on your on intake liquids will help to reduce you production of milk. If you do get engorged remember to tak warm showers or put a warm pack on your breast-
I used to be a LLL Counslor and Lacataation Trainer.
I hope this helps.
S.

CS,
You could pump and freeze your milk, just in case. Don't remeber how long freezing is good for. To wean though, what I did was to start baby on smallest bottle with a little water after feeding for a couple days to let baby get used to bottle. Then prior found out from doctor what formula was best and started on that while giving less of my milk on each feeding. Within a week weaning was done, baby was fine and my boobies were dry and not hurting. You will keep producing milk the more you feed so dwindle feeding time off of you and more bottle. FYI when going off bottle to cups do same less bottle more cup - water bottles are good transition to cups. One week per transition for both of my kids. Advice given to me by my aunt who had 6 kids. LA LECHE GROUP good source of advice also if they are still around.
Good luck
L.

At his very young age, weaning will be difficult for EVERYONE involved. Even dad! I would encourage you to not wean or only expect to wean down to less feedings, but not entirely. If you DO want to pursue it, contact LLL or a lactation consultant to help you. If are not fully dedicated to weaning, don't. Pump and pump some more and when you return, your daughter will be more than happy to re-establish your supply and nursing relationship.

I was amazed how quickly my son forgot about breast feeding. I started giving him bottles, because I too had to be gone for a few days, and he figured it out really quick. You are going to want to pump some while you are gone because you get so engorged. A heating pad is helpfull for the soreness too.

I tried nursing my son about a week after he was done and he refused so I had to pump every now and then just to relieve the pressure. Other than that I didn't really have any problems. My son was a little younger than yours and he did fine.