How to Wean from Breast

Hi! My son is 13 mos. too. I just weaned him from the breast. I was down to 2 feedings a day too (morning & night). I cut back to just feeding at night for about a month. Then I just stopped nursing at night. My son isn't crazy about sippy cups or cows milk. He likes to drink from a straw. Usually diluted fruit juices and occassionally milk.

He still tries to nurse and sometimes gets upset. I figure the sooner I wean him the easier it will be for the both of us.

T.

If he is eating a drinking well all day then he is not nursing out of hunger. Start a new bedtime routine. Bathe him, read a book, then put him to bed. For morning, feed him immediately. His favortie cereal, fruit, a rice cake, ect...

And no matter what DO NOT BREAST FEED HIM ONCE YOU HAVE SAID NO!!!

Hi K.,

I nursed with both of children. Although my first born died of SIDS my daughter was lactose so it was very hard to wean her from breast milk. What I did was I bought lactose similac and mixed it with my breast milk. She was not feeling it at first but when she got hungry she had no choice. I don't want to sound like I forced her but she then slowly weaned herself off. I would mix it and make like it came from my breast but after the fun and games I was playing with her sippy cup she began to drink water and other fruit drinks and off she went. On the otherhand, she was using a sippy cup since she was walking and she began walking at 9 months but I put breast milk in her sippy cup until she turned 1 and it was over. She was on similac and then regular milk but she is not a milk person. Her dad is not either so I can say she got that from him. However, I am a milk person, love it. If you have any questions send me a message and I will try to answer them as best I can.

Since he's down to only two nursing sessions a day, it should be fairly easy to wean. Just cut out the one feeding he's less attached to first and then the next. I did this with my daughter by weaning her of her bedtime feeding first and replacing it with a story/cuddle time and then water in a bottle (she did take a bottle) and then she only nursed in the morning. To cut that one, I just told her there was no more milk. The next day I was engorged and had to nurse her, then we skipped two days and then she nursed one last time and that was it. Because she'd been taking water and juice in a sippy cup since she was about 9 months old, she had no problem adjusting to regular milk in a sippy.

As for not wanting milk, I can tell you that my son had a hard time switching to regular milk from a sippy cup. I tried warming it, adding a little bit of chocolate milk, etc, but nothing worked. Finally I just told him that cold milk in a sippy cup was all he was going to get. It took a week of us both being pretty miserable, but he eventually gave in and that was the end of it.

Good luck with the transition!

K.,
Congratulations on being a first time mom. I am as well. My baby is now 16 months and I can't get enough of her. My only suggestion, this is what worked for me, is to try warming milk in a bottle. Make sure you use Vit. D milk and I recommend buying one of those bottle warmers you can get at the grocery store. They heat milk much more safely than a micro-wave which can hide hot spots. You might even put a little bit of baby cereal in with it at first to make it more similar to your milk. Any way, good luck to you- I hope this helps. If not, I hope something else does. :)

I had trouble with my little girl taking milk through a sippy cup when I was nursing, too! And by chance I got a straw out and she drank milk through a straw. So we bought a bunch of straw sippys and now she drinks her milk through straw sippy's and water through other sippys. She won't drink milk any other way. For the weaning, I just slowly shrunk the time we nursed. I got rid of the morning one first and then the night one. I slowly did it, for example at night I would sing songs to her while I nursed her and I would decrease one song at a time for a week or week and a half. She was very sensitive and a big change really frustrated her, thats why we did it slowly. I started the weaning at 14 months and then by the time she was 18 months we were done.

Congrats you made it a year plus some!!!

I nursed all 3 of my kiddos, and weaning was diffrent with all three. Knowing that my thrid on was my last he was the hardest to wean or I was the hardest to wean. Weaning is just a sign they are growing up and it stinks!!!!

With my 2nd I was still feeding him 5 times a day at 13 months, I just cut him off and that was a nightmare!! Just remember, how many 2 year olds do you see running around with a bottle? My 3rd was done by 15 months and we started at 13 months and this was much better on both of us. I just cut down slowy by cutting a feeding out here and there. Nothing to stressful for both of us. Now he is 19 months old and I miss that special time that we had together. I am such a baby!!

Good luck! Let us know how it goes!