My daughter turns a year old tomorrow and I'm working on transitioning her to drinking rice milk instead of mommy's milk. She is taking to the rice milk, but the bedtime is hard. Currently she nurses right before she is laid down. What ideas do you have for getting her to go to sleep without nursing before bedtime?
I appreciate the response. My daughter only gets a bottle at daycare, so I'm working with the teachers on offering her the milk in a sippy cup. I know she won't take a bottle from me so I figured I'd wean her off those during this process. So for those who mentioned keeping the nighttime nursing...will I make milk if I'm not pumping through out the day? It may be a dumb question, but I don't know how flexible the body is on continuing to produce milk if you only nurse at night.
Is there a certain reason or purpose you feel that you must force wean your little - barely a toddler - girl?
Many children will want to and need to nurse past 1 year old. Be it for additional nutrition and immunity benefits or simply comfort needed from Mommy - nursing past a year is very beneficial to both Mommy and child.
Some kids do not have to be 'transitioned.
My exclusively breastfed Daughter, went from breastmilk straight to whole milk at 1 year old, with NO problem. Even if I was still nursing her. She had both.
She self-weaned from breast, at about 2.5 years old.
My son, would NOT take whole milk. So for him, I had to mix part breast with part whole milk... gradually. One ounce whole milk and the rest breast. Gradually. And he had self-weaned from breast at about 1 years old.
He has very picky taste buds.
Nursing before bedtime, at this age, is to me... NO big deal.
I nursed both my kids before bed and naps, even at that age.
I see nothing wrong with it.
But since you are doing that, her nursing only at bedtime is really hardly much. Just do it gradually. Night time, is the hardest to stop.
So I assume, you are giving the rice milk in a bottle? Or in a sippy?
The thing is: you do not 'have to' stop nursing, just because she will be taking other forms of 'milk' and she is going to be 1 years old.
But it is up to you.
There are many different ways, we Moms, introduce other milks to our babies. It is up to you.
At just 1YO, I am not sure I would rush to terminate the evening nursing session. If this is the only one she has left, I do not see the harm in keeping it for now. As she becomes more accustomed to drinking the other milk, she will get sufficient hydration and eventually stop the evening session herself. Whatever you do, at this point, DO NOT use a bottle. Keep the focus on the cup with the new milk.
Once my children were drinking milk 3 times a day (at a minimum), the evening session just disappeared. They also drank water or a 25/75 juice/water mix so this helped keep the fluids intake high.
Be sure to maintain all the other aspects of the night time routine - Pjs, brush teeth, story, prayers then kisses and lights out. (You might find that the brusing teeth takes over where the nursing occurred.)
Good luck.
~C.
sounds to me like it is more of a comfort thing for her. i agree with some of the others, at this point, a bedtime nursing routine is not something you HAVE to give up if you don't want to. however, if you do want to transition over wholly to the rice milk, you may be best served to have someone else give the bedtime feeding. bedtime is the hardest since they are sleepy and a little on the cranky side. if she doesn't have the option of refusing the rice milk because you are right there and can provide what she really wants, then the transition may go a little better. just a thought.
My daughter is now 14 months and so we just went through this transition. The night time feeding was my last to drop and it ended up not being a big deal. I started giving her a sippy with milk before we went in to nurse to make sure she was good and full before we started our bed time routine. Then I would just nurse on one side and then rock her until I felt like I could not nurse at all and just rock for a few minutes before putting her down. I pat my daughters back until she falls asleep but I would just continue your normal routine minus the nursing.
You have done a great job nursing for 12 months and if you are ready to wean then you should and no one should tell you otherwise.
When I weaned my oldest at a year, I dropped a feeding a week and then the last one I dropped was the nighttime one. I went out of town and left her with my in-laws and they just read her a story and cuddled her and it worked.
I now have twin girls who turn a year tomorrow and they got a bottle before bed. I didn't have the option of going out of town, so I just did it. I read them both a story and gave them their pacifiers - sang a song and put them down. The first night they cried and fussed for about 10 minutes and then last night they just went to bed. At this age, they have short memories if you don't reinforce!
Good luck!
