Ideas on Weaning?

I was also down to one breast at 11 months and time to wean.For both kids i grabed a girlfriend and went away for 2 or three nights and my wounderful husband dealt. By the 3rd day they didnt remember the boob and i had a nice relaxing weekend, refreshed and ready to be a mom again.good luck.

Hi A.,
This is such a great question. For me, my son was about 11 months when we both started showing some signs of slowing down on the breast-feeding. My milk was not coming in as plentiful as it had been, so we started supplementing him with formula. My husband and I took turns feeding him and when I was ready to wean him, we did it gradually; I started cutting down the number of times I pumped or breast fed every few days and he got the bottle. He took the bottle from me with no hesitation although it was noticeable that he took it from Papa more readily than me. My husband also offered to feed him more often and I got to go visit with friends and not have to worry about pumping or feeding my little guy or be nearby when he was wanting to be fed. It worked like a charm and it felt so natural. Within a few weeks he was weaned. We fed him formula until he was about 18mos and he never looked back. many blessings as you move through this. every one is different, so find things that make you feel comfortable and peaceful. It's a loss yet a new beginning; so mourn the loss and celebrate the rite of passage into toddlerhood. you'll both feel good.

I just weaned my 9mo old and I just had to do it cold turkey. I tried to only do 1 nursing section a day but she would actually hold out until she got the boob! It was a rough 3 days but now she loves the formula. I add a little soy milk to help with the taste.

Routines help a great deal with naptimes and bedtimes - 3 to 4 things you do right before they lie down. You may want to change her bedtime routines before weaning her so that her sleep isn't disrupted.

I did this by not nursing in bed, I would nurse in the living room, then change diapers, brush teeth, then read a book in the bedroom right before putting them down, (you may want to give her some sort of comfy - a blanket, stuffed animal - sometimes nursing can be more about comfort than hunger), then putting some music on. That way others can follow the same routine. It takes a few days to adjust to the new routine, and if she starts to fall asleep while nursing tickle her feet to keep her awake, stop nursing and start the routine.

Hi A.,

To get my daughter to fall asleep by herself I always fed her then changed her diaper and put on her pjs. That way she would wake up slightly before laying her down. The idea is to put her to bed sleepy.

Now since your little girl is 11 months you might also neet to try letting her play herself to sleep have a couple special (maybe new toys) she only gets in bed (switch them up) and a book or two. It would be a great way to distract her and let herself naturally relax. That is what I had to do with my son, who I suckled to sleep until around 12 months. It took about 3 weeks. I started with naps. He wasn't always happy so.....I also would lay down on the bed near the crib (reading my own book). Then I gradually started laying down for shorter and shorter periods over a 2 week period.

Good luck! It will take time.
R.

A.,

First of all, congratulations on choosing to nurse your daughter for so long. You really have given her a gift that will last her a lifetime. Second, I’m wondering if you are ready to wean, or if you just want your daughter to be able to go to sleep without you.

If you want to break the cycle of nursing-sleeping, that is fairly easy to do without fully weaning your daughter. I started with both my girls when they were about 9-10 months old. First, I made sure that they were going to bed sleepy, but NOT asleep. While I think it’s normal and easy for small babies to fall asleep at the breast, as they get older, they are ready to learn to put themselves to sleep. Once my girls were falling asleep on their own, we added in an activity after their nighttime nursing, before they went to bed. My oldest liked to read a book before bed. My youngest likes to have Daddy rock her, then bed. In both cases, Daddy did the activity. It broke the Mommy association, and it also gave Daddy some valuable cuddle time with the kids. Now, if I have to be out in the evenings, we just skip the night nursing and he puts them to bed.

If you are ready to wean, here is what we did. First, I picked my daughter’s least favorite feeding. For us, it was the midmorning (about 10am feeding). Knowing that a nursing time was coming up, I offered a snack, some water and started an activity with my daughter, like a new book or toy. When she would ask for milk, I didn’t tell her no, I told her when she could nurse. So, for example, I didn’t tell her “no” at 10am, I told her that she could have milk before her nap. We also stayed out of her “nursing spots” like the rocking chair in the nursery. I also found it helpful to keep my boobs out of sight, so I wore turtlenecks or high-cut shirts and I stopped wearing nursing bras. After a week, I picked another feeding to cut out, and so on until we were done. Expect some tears, and maybe some tantrums, depending on how attached your daughter is to nursing. 11 months is still pretty young, so you probably won’t be able to do much reasoning with her. Some moms tell their kiddos that milk when bye-bye, or that it’s all gone. I heard of one mom who put Band-Aids on her nipples and told her daughter they were broken or ouchie. Her kiddo was a band-aid fanatic, so she got it and didn’t ask again. If you nurse to head off tantrums or when your daughter gets hurt, you need to have a plan in place for those situations. I found that it was helpful to remember that weaning is the act of replacing nursing with another form of food AND comfort. You don’t just wean off the breast, you have to wean TO something, so plan on spending extra time with your daughter playing, cuddling, rocking, etc.

Best of luck,
S.

when my kids were at the point of just nursing for naps and bedtime, i started cutting out one at a time the nursing sessions that i felt were least important to them and giving a bottle instead. for my oldest the most important were the afternoon nap and bedtime. the formula/milk before sleep was an important comfort for him which he held onto for a long time, though. he's almost 5 and we still do a cup of milk before bed. my second baby hung onto bedtime and the 6 am feeding. what we did was to go to a basketball game with my family that lasted past bedtime. we brought a nuby cup of milk just in case. he was having so much fun at the game, on the train, and playing with grandparents and cousins that he didn't notice/care about nursing. he didn't even care much about drinking the cup of milk. when we got in the car he was so tired he fell right to sleep, slept past 6am, and when he did wake up that morning, i started him with breakfast right away. the next night i just gave him a nuby cup of milk and had another ready for him in the morning if he wanted it. from that point on if he hinted that he wanted to nurse, i just told him he didn't need to, his belly was full, but i would rock him, sing to him, read a book, etc. for a little bit and then put music on for him to sleep. i was amazed at how well the whole process worked for him! and even though i was ready for him to be weaned and i felt free finally, i still had some days of sadness about it being over. i just had to cuddle him more at those times.

I have to say that I think weaning was harder on me than it was on my little girl. She was 12 months old and I thought I was ready to be done! We had already gone down to the bed time feedings only, which was half the battle! So after all of the advise I had been given I decided that I was going to stop cold turkey!! I like you didn't have much milk left so I wasn't too worried about gourging! I also didn't want to introduce her to a bottle at this point cause she already used a binkie and I didn't want yet another thing to have to wean her from down the road! So I the first feeding that came I gave her a sipper cup full of milk, she looked at me like I was crazy but started drinking the milk right away! I still held her cause I think we both still needed that comfort. I can only remember two bed times where she would nussel into my chest hoping to get milk, but she never cried! I think a lot of times when our body starts to show signs of the inability to keep nursing that is because our job is done and our child is ready for the next step in thier lives!!

I weened gradually at 9 months and went to sippy cups. I started serving sippy cups at meals with pumped milk and then I started putting half and half and then eventually by about 11 months, it was cow milk. I got Longmont Dairy Delivery and loved it. I gave a botle or nursed once around 6 pm with a 7 pm bed time. Eventually, i reduced that intake to nothing and night nursing stopped by 12 months. You can also start with apple or white grape juice watered down for snack times. Mie actually ended up being milk sensitaive and only have a little now once a day. Otherwise it is water and one glas of juice. (but that was when they were each two...my second is actually dairy free all together.)