Weaning a 9 Month Old

Why do you think that you have to wean? You could still breastfeed when you pick your child up from child care and maintain that bond that he will surely miss once away from you. Keeping that special nurse to sleep might help keep him secure while away from you during the day. You created a great and soothing transition to dreamland for him that no doubt he loves! You might want to wean after you go back to work, this way you could tell if he still really needs you or not. Once you wean, it is hard to go back. If you're worried about the dependacy of nursing to sleep, you could have your spouse use a sling and walk around until he gets sleepy. Perhaps just the closeness of being snuggled is all that he might need to get drowsy. Best of Luck!

I have to agree with Elizabeth I too went to just the night feedings and it made it a lot easier for my daughter as well as for me, no warming or preparing bottles in the middle of the night. I was very lucky because she was a pretty good sleep through the nighter at about 3 1/2 months. It will come, don't stress to much cuz believe it or not they can tell when moms not relaxed.
Good luck!

I am working on the same thing with my 11 month old, we started working on weaning at about 9 1/2 months and I am happy to say we are almost done. I started by just giving her a sippy cup of water to get her used to drinking from it. I had to try several, the best one I think is the nuby and the playtex both with handles. The nuby has a very soft top which I think was the most similar to the breast. After she started drinking from it I had my husband give her 2 oz of formula at night before I would breastfeed, I couldn't be in the room. She fought it for a while, but after repeated attemps she started drinking it. So then during the day I started putting some whole milk in her sippy cup at lunch and just setting it on the tray, now she will drink that, only a couple of oz. Then I started mixing 4 oz of formula and then filling the rest of the cup with whole milk and giving that to her a couple of times a day, in the morning, before naps and at bedtime. I hold her almost sitting up with her back against me so it is different then the breastfeeding position. She still wants to nurse for a few minutes before I put her to bed a night and sometimes during the day she gets really cranky and rubs her face against my chest so I will let her nurse for a few minutes if she does that, but it is not everyday. The bedtime nursing seems to be for less and less time, so I think we are just about done! It has taken some time and persistance and my husband had to help, but it is working well. I know you aren't suppose to give them whole milk until a year but mostly I wanted to make sure she had a taste for it so it was only a couple of oz. My plan is to gradually increase the amount in the sippy cup over the next month until it is all whole milk by the time she is a year. I also decided to use the sippy cup instead of a bottle because I didn't want to have to wean her from that too down the road. Hope this helps, good luck! -E.

When I weaned my daughter I did it gradually and replaced it with a bottle or food. Probably cut out one session a week until he is finished. I also nursed her to sleep, but she easily made the transition. I knew she could put herself to sleep because she did it at nap time, so I wasn't concerned at bed time. The bed time nursing session will be the last one to go because he is so used to it. Good luck, hopefully it goes smoothly.

I weaned my oldest daughter at 9 1/2 months. The night feeding is the hardest one, I believe. I just cut out a feeding each day so that within a week she was completely off. At first I would just hold her as if she was nursing and fed her the bottle. By the second night she wanted to hold the bottle herself until she was asleep. I was lucky that my daughter didn't care how she got her milk, she just wanted it! Sounds like you are off to a great start! Good luck!