Weaning from BreastFeeding Questions

At 1 year old... she can have whole milk.
Hopefully, the transition goes well and she likes it.
Then you can transition her to that.

My daughter, who was exclusively breastfed, had NO problems switching to whole milk. Although I was still nursing after 1 years old... and my daughter self-weaned eventually.

My son on the other hand... DID NOT like whole milk... and it took him awhile to get used to and transition to whole milk. Until then, I still gave him breast from a bottle or Formula. And per the Pediatrician, which was fine. He at about 1 years old, wanted nothing to do with nursing anymore. Self-weaned himself.

Does your daughter... drink anything, from a cup or sippy, already???

Good for you for nursing this long! What an accomplishment. I just finished weaning my daughter (she's about 14 months now), who also very much liked to nurse and was still taking a large portion of her nutrition by breastfeeding. Starting right after her first birthday,I started dropping one feeding at a time, every 4-7 days. Doing it in a gradual way like that really made it pain-free for both of us. It does take a little patience, especially if you are ready NOW, but doing it this way my daughter literally never even fussed or seemed upset at all, and I had very little pain either. I am now giving her a bottle of whole milk first thing in the morning, and at bedtime, and then the rest of the day is sippy cups and regular food. I didn't want to take away all the comfort from sucking, which is why I'm doing the bottle of whole milk twice a day for now, and will cut those out later. Our ped is fine with this.
I will say, that my daughter wasn't nursing at night any more when I started weaning, so we didn't have to deal with that challenge. Maybe you want to start with night weaning, and then deal with the daytime. You could offer a bottle/sippy of water during the night instead as a transition, or send your significant other in to comfort during the night to eliminate those.

Hope this helps-good luck!

gradually taper off.........its the most kind way of doing it.

Oh, my!! 12 times a day at almost a year would make anyone want to stop! I hear you on the pumping, don't feel guilty is you don't want to pump. You really need to wean slowly or it sounds like she will freak out. That is not healthy for you or her. First thing I would do is "discipline" her regarding proper nursing. If she continues to be aggressive towards your breasts then you need to pull her off immediately and say no firmly. Then try again. and again. Until she learns. During this time, try introducing the bottle or perhaps the sippy cup full or formula. My son was a boobaholic and took the sippy cup happily and hated bottles. Then start dropping one breastfeeding sessions a day. Try to occupy her with some other activity. She might be doing it because she is bored or perhaps she needs the sucking to stimulate or calm her down. Substitute other activities like rocking, playing, bouncing, ect. My son loved his supersaucer at that age.

I'd just start offering a cup or bottle for at least HALF of those feedings, sounds like she's more of a comfort nurser than anything else. Distract and offer something else in it's place, you should be pretty depleted soon enough and then she'll naturally not like to nurse anymore if she's not getting much milk from the breast.

She will need to comfort and love she gets at the breast and the antibodies she gets every time she nurses EVEN MORE now once you return to work...

My advice is to supplement with other nutrition when she's at daycare, then nurse exclusively when you are home and together. She will need the amazing security of breastfeeding after a hard and stressful day away from you - it will help her re-charge and refresh.

With all the germs floating in daycares... having breastmilk is important to keeping her healthy or getting less severe forms of the illnesses that spread.

Hi! I'm going to echo much of what the other moms have said - gradual weening is best - but I bet you'll have a sense of which feeds to drop first. You may try one that you know she's not that into so the first one is easier (like a feed she has soon after another meal) or you may want to tackle nights first to get them out of the way. If I remember correctly I kind of bounced between the two - nights and days - where I knew I could drop them easiest/she was just looking for snuggles, not milk/nutrition. Trust your gut on it, and once you've decided on one to drop stick with it, it should only take a few days each. Also, I breastfed exclusively for 16 months - my DD wouldn't take a bottle (long stroy!), but by the time I was weening (and going back to work) she had started taking water from a sippy cup, and this definitely helped. So if you don't have your daughter on a sippy cup yet (or bottle) I would tackle that before you start weening so there is an alternative to go to. If she's been exclusively breast fed I don't know how you'll get on with formula, my DD wouldn't touch it but later started having whole milk in day care. Also.... this may sound terrible, but by the time I had to go back to work I had ONE feed left that I hadn't managed to drop (afternoon nap). So I spoke with the staff and they were happy to deal with it, so that took a bit of pressure off me as well. Good luck!!! (And remember you'll both be fine!!!)

Although I have never weaned a child so young, (mine all nursed until around 3 years -- it worked for us -- I know it doesn't work for everyone -- you are the one who knows the best decision for you and your family. End of story) I do have some advice to offer.

I would definitely start with night weaning. There is an excellent article on night weaning here: http://drjaygordon.com/attachment/sleeppattern.html Although it is based on a family bed model, it can be modified for other sleep situations as well. Once she's nightweaned, you can start in on daytime. The first thing you need to do is get her drinking from a bottle, sippycup, or a cup, so that there's something else to offer. My son used to nurse just as much as your daughter. The first thing I did was every time he asked to nurse, I would ask him if he was hungry or thirsty (he was already verbal at the time I started doing this) and about half the time, he was and was just asking to nurse because it was the easiest and most convenient solution. He would happily take a snack or a drink instead... particularly if offered a favorite, but often even if offered a cup of water. I also started shortening the nursing sessions that I was trying to drop -- he would nurse, and I would sing ABC, or twinkle twinkle, or something of approximately that length, and we'd be done. (Of course, I'd tell him that beforehand.) At this point, we're down to about 5 nursings a day (unless something happens that really upsets him and he needs to for emotional reasons) It's usually morning (he's often up at about 5:30, and nursing for about 10 min usually buys me another hour or so of sleep), midmorning, naptime, midafternoon, and bedtime. We're not nursing anymore when we're out and about, though if we're at a friend's house or relatives or something, or I'm trying to get him to nap, that's different.

I can't really give you any advice on how to drop those last few nursings... my kids have always been old enough by the time I'm ready to do that that we just have a discussion about how he/she's a big boy/girl now and nursing is for babys, and that we're going to stop on whatever day I've chosen. The end comes, they say goodbye to nursing, and that's that. Sometimes they snuggle in and tell me they miss it for a while, but it's pretty easy at that point. I suspect that I'll keep nursing my little one until he's done with naptime, which I suspect will happen within the next 6 months or so, but it's really the easiest way to get him to go down. He doesn't nurse to sleep at night anymore, only naptime. I am ready to be done -- been continuously pregnant or nursing since Dec. of 2000, but I also love nursing my babys, and I'll be a bit sad to lose that connection. Very mixed feelings. He's my last baby, so it's very bittersweet. Anyway, I'm getting rambly. Good luck, and remember to try to replace the comfort your daughter is getting from nursing with something else very special.

Hey G.: I live in Bridgewater, MA! I can't offer any advice because I am currently 27 weeks pregnant with my first and was planning on breastfeeding. I do have a question for you that perhaps you can shed light on. I too will go back to work after my maternity leave and was wondering how do I stock up for when that happens? How do I pump and nurse from the breast during my maternity leave so I can get enough to stock my freezer but still have enough ready in the breast for when my little girl is ready to feed? Does this question make sense? In my head, I'm thinking that if I pump continuously, there won't be enough to fill up for the actual feeding from the breasts! LOL
Sorry I couldn't help you. I feel bad because I'm asking for your advice and I couldn't give you any. Thanks G.!
M.

I would start with a feeding she doesn't always take and distract her. If she really wants it, nurse her, but more and more you're going to see that she'll take a sippy cup or a piece of fruit instead or will be distracted by a toy. Expect that it will take longer to drop the sleepy feedings - first thing in the AM, naptime, bedtime. Work on those last. The feedings you do still give her, start to make them shorter. By the very end, my DD was nursing about 5 minutes before bed and that was it. Expect that this will not be an overnight process. I'm trying to think but six months feels about right, from when I actively started to encourage her to wean to when she went to bed without asking. Your timeframe may be different but that was my experience.

Oh, and DD never took to whole milk, so I just made sure she got other forms of calcium.

If you have to return to work before she is fully weaned, you may find that she is fine during the day and just wants to nurse before bed and you won't have to pump.

And regarding the pulling and tugging, etc. as you wean, you can still teach her to be gentle, be nice, if she's not nice, she doesn't get nursed. Toddlers can grasp that well enough. Just tell her "ow!" and put her down for a while.

I am one of those moms whose milk flow is "not that much". The longest that I have breast fed is 6 months. The shortest is 1. So since birth, all my kids have been used to mixed feeding. But I had troubles with one of my daughters, michaela, who is still feeding on her bottle until now. She is 5. (i think she loves her bottles so much, i had it customized in coolpacifiers)

I am not alarmed by this. Because I noticed a change in her when she started schooling. Her teacher told her to stop bringing the bottle in school. And that she is a big girl now and must learn to drink on a glass. Since then, her bottle feeding reduced drastically but she is still on her milk -- in a glass.

:-)

i suggest, try which way works for your baby. the only thing you can do is substitute meal times and feeding bottles. hope this helps.

There is a good book called The Nursing Mother's Guide to Weaning.