Weaning My One Year Old from Breastfeeding

I would avoid giving him a bottle if at all possible, because that just creates another habit that you'll have to break. Have you tried warming the milk a little bit? That's what I did with both of my kids, and they seemed to take it better than if it were cold. I also used the nuby cups with the soft spout. Good luck!

It's been a while, but I pumped for a while during the transition. I eventually dried up. So I had a bottle ready with (previously) pumped milk, and started him on the breast and slipped the bottle into his mouth so he would get used to it. Good especially when they're sleepy. Then gradually tapered into formula (never cow's milk - not good - too many allergies).

WOW! What a wonderful accomplishment for you and your baby. I'm still nursing my almost 2 year-old and I've enjoyed the experience very much. I know you'll want it to be a gradual process to avoid engorgement and possible mastitis which can happen in abrupt weaning. I would suggest contacting your local La Leche League. They will have wonderful information about weaning techniques that will be best for both you and your baby. I know you will find them helpful. Here's the link:
http://www.llli.org/WebUS.html

Good luck and pat yourself on the back for this accomplishment,
K.

P.s. Soy milk is sweet like breastmilk and may be a good supplement instead of cows milk. My son drinks vanilla soy milk, which has more calcuim than cows milk!

Of food in general, my doctor recommended looking at a week's worth of nutrition, rather than stressing daily. If he eats carrots all day one day, cheese the next, bread the next, don't worry too much.

For nursing, if he goes a week without any milk, supplement with dairy products and don't stress it. If he doesn't want to replace nursing, then just stop nursting without trying to replace with cow's milk. He'll get his liquids through water and juice and other nutrition through food.

My daughter will be 1 in about a week, so I'm getting ready to start the process too. She's already nursing less, and I'm producing less, so I think we're on our way. I haven't started cow's milk yet... but a friend of mine told me that I might want to pump breast milk and mix it with whole milk. So the first time do maybe 3 oz breastmilk and 1 oz cow's milk.. do that for a week or two, then to 2 oz bm 2 oz milk, then 1 oz/ 3 oz, and so on. She said it worked for her, that's probably what I will try.

I weaned my second son at 8 months and my third at 4 months. The hardest thing was finding a nipple my youngest son liked for bottle feeding. When we found the right one, he took the bottle without any problems. All of my boys drank formula periodically from the very first day so they were all used to it when it was needed. When they were 12 months I switched all of my boys to milk by slowly mixing it into the formula an ounce at a time over a week or so. I did that same thing when I weaned them off the bottle by mixing water into the milk. That went very fast! I only put whole milk into a sippy cup the transition went smoothly.

Whether you use a bottle or go straight to a sippy cup, you can pump and use the breast milk while you slowly add in cow's milk. This will help, so that you don't experience as much discomfort during weaning.

Hi J.,

Try warming the milk or formula (or breastmilk/milk mixture) a bit and then have your husband (or someone else) give it to him. Supposedly they can smell the breast milk and if he smells he's going to want it.

My son wouldn't take the bottle from me, but he would from a friend, and eventually would then take it from me. Good luck!

I'm in the same boat as you. I have a 20 month old daughter that still nurses. My reasoning is she is still doing it since I work quite strange hours at the local hospitals in town and this is her way of feeling closer to me.
I, myself, am not quite sure how she is going to wean herself at such a late part of the game. Keep encouraging the cow's milk, or if you have the finances supplement with some of the older baby formulas to see if he likes that flavor. My child still nursed pretty heavy until she was 13 months old, but right at 13 months she slowed way down. I pumped at work until she was 13 months. Now my milk feels so established that I never feel it come in now. So don't be discouraged.
Hang in there. Maybe we will both get some relief one of these days. Take care!!

I would ask your doctor what he thinks. My son was the same way. He would drink juice and water out of a cup but would not even think about milk in a cup. When I ask my doctor he said as long as he was getting enough calcium he would be fine. My son is now a healthly 3 1/2 years old. Good Luck!

When I weaned my daughter, we tried a few different techniques. First I replaced a few of her nursings with her favorite treat or a special little drink I'd make up for her. We sometimes made little smoothies for her too. I noticed also that she preferred the sippy cups with straws as opposed to the normal ones. Right now I'm laying the groundwork for my 11 month old lil guy. He's gong to be much harder to wean than my daughter because he really is mommy's boy. I've started nursing less during the day because I know that's the easiest for him. He loves to eat the same foods I and my other children eat so it's going to be easy to stop nursing during the day. At night will be difficult. He's so used to nursing himself to sleep. My daughter was also. So instead of nursing we started rocking her and using some soothing music. Also we switched to having my husband helping her off to sleep at night because she knew that daddy couldn't nurse her lol.

A few other things that kinda helped were wearing thicker sweaters and shirts like that because it's that skin to skin contact that they crave as well.

Good Luck!

J.

I weaned my little boy when he was just over a year old. The first week was tough, but I started a medication where I couldn't breastfeed any longer.

I offered plenty of fluids. Milk was always the 1st option I gave him. He was only allowed 4 oz. of juice every couple of days because if it was up to him that's all he'd drink. I also started a bottle and my husband would feed him. I also upped all his food intake, so he wasn't as dependent on the breast milk for nutrients. Within a week of not nursing him, he quit trying. It was harder on me than him. I miss nursing him--that was our special time.

If your little boy isn't ready to be weaned, why not work with him to stop gnawing. My little boy started biting a little around 6 months. When he'd hurt me, I'd simply tell him to stop. If he did it once more, then I ended the nursing. He quickly learned that if he wanted to nurse then he couldn't hurt me. He had 8 teeth by the time he was year old and he knew that mommy's breasts were not teethers. If he wanted something to chew on, then I'd give him a teether. If he wanted to nurse, he could.

Good luck to you.

I have 3 children and they all pretty much weaned themselves
from the breast. My first 2 stopped nursing at 10 months and my 3rd child weaned himself at 14months. They all just stopped wanting to nurse regularly, but would only at night. The less you nuse, the slower the milk production and eventually you'll both be done.
Good luck!

Start gradually taking away one feeding a day and using a bottle instead. Since he's already 1, you can use whole milk for this one bottle and not have to mess with formula. Once he adjusts to that, decrease by one more. The last one to go will probably be the before-bed one, and when you get down to that, you could try doing half of that feeding with a bottle and half nursing until he is completely weaned. It's not as hard as it sounds once you get started. Good luck!
T.

Hi J., I nursed my son exclusively for a year, we were in the middle of moving halfway across country during the window that he would have accepted baby food as a supplement. At a year he really showed interest in adult food and started eating some which made it easy to cut back on the feedings. A banana for breakfast was perfect and eventually I was nursing only before his bed time. He wouldn't drink milk either so I bought some sugar free chocolate milk mix and put that in for a couple of days slowly reducing the amount of mix and he started drinking it happily without realizing it wasn't flavored anymore. Now he can't get enough of it at 18 months old. Finally when he really got the hang of eating adult food I made sure he had a healthy dinner and either as much water or milk as he wanted and he continiued to sleep through the night without fussing that his nightly feedings were gone too. I hope this helps you with ideas! :)

My son is 13 months and I have still not weaned him from a bottle yet. Over the past couple weeks he has not wanted to drink from it, but mostly want to hold on to it and play with it. I believe that when child is ready to wean from a bottle or the breast, there will be signs that they are ready. I am going to start this process with my son and I do not think I will have any trouble at all. Hope this helps!