Weaning Please Help

What does she drink out of when you are at work? Any chance hubs or someone else could take over some of the night feedings and offer the sippy?

Mine weaned off breast milk at 5 months, off the bottle at one year and off formula within 6 weeks thereafter. He was voracious and appreciated getting more faster at each transition.

Best
F. B.

My pediatrician said that there's no way a baby of that age should be getting multiple feedings all night long. She said it was far more important for my child to have a good night's sleep for brain development, and that he would make up for it calorically during waking hours. Talk to the pediatrician about sleep training. Both you and your daughter are sleep deprived and that is more than annoying, it's dangerous. She's more than capable of going 10 hours without eating, whether it's breast milk or formula or solid food. A 10 month old isn't likely to be eating every 2-3 hours by day, so why by night? She absolutely must get quality sleep. Please have a sensible conversation with you doctor.

Babies that take a bottle should be off formula around age 1. That doesn't mean they shouldn't take a bottle with regular milk in it.

It's walking around or sleeping with the bottle in their mouth for hours and hours that make the teeth rot. Think about it. You drink milk, I drink milk, we all eat during the day and no one runs out to brush their teeth every time they sip a coffee or pop.

We all drink and eat all day and don't have rot eating our teeth away.

Kids that have good enamel can eat and drink anything they want and it will not effect their teeth. If they have weak enamel then no matter what you do they will have cavities and rotted teeth.

Now, back to the bottle issue. Kids that take a bottle don't need to carry it around sucking on it all day, bottle or tippy cup. Same difference. A constant supply of stuff dripping on their teeth for hours. Their saliva can't do it's job if there is a constant supply of the liquid.

If they take a bottle and it's removed with it's empty there are no problems with that. It's the constant dripping when they hold a full bottle in their mouth all night.

If you just want to wean your child by age one that's your choice but most moms who nurse their children do it a lot longer, some until they're 2. If you want to wean them you might want to wait until they're at least 1 so they will still get the nutrients your body provides for them. Food isn't where they need to be getting nutrition. They need to nurse first then eat until they're 1.

try dropping one nursing session at a time. feed foods that are high in protein rght before bed to get her to sleep longer. give her a pacifier in the middle of the night to delay and stop feedings.offer more food and mommy time during the day.
if all else fails then forget weaning and enjoy the night time cuddling and feeding baby. she will wean herself one day.
also check out kelly mom.com for more help. and consider reducing your supply. (i was nearly dry by a year making the weaning easier, they gave up 1 week(dd) and 2(ds) weeks after turning one

Kellymom.com is my favorite and the more informative website about breastfeeding. I highly suggest going to the site.
There is no reason to wean just because baby is 1 year old. In fact the World Health Organization(WHO) and the American Academy of Pediatrics(AAP) recommend breastfeeding until 2 years of age or longer if the mother and baby so desire.
A 10 month old can and does wake to nurse at night, especially if you are gone all day at work. It is not unheard of at all. Sleeping through the night at that age is not a full 10 hour stretch. They need total hours of sleep over the course of the day, including naps. Also every baby achieves sleep maturity at different rates so just because one baby does does not mean yours will.
Up until the age of 1 the main source of nutrition should only be breastmilk or formula. Solid foods should not replace a meal of either of those. Solid foods are only for practice and fun at this age.

Babies over 12 months don't need a bottle. They need proper nutrition. That can be achieved during the day by meals and sippy cups. Is she waking so many times at night because she is hungry? Or just wants the comfort of nursing? I would suggest starting by replacing one night time nursing by offering a sippy cup instead. If she refuses the sippy from you, try having hubby take over. Read some good books on sleep training. At 10 months old, she is old enough for sleep training. Talk to your pediatrician about weaning. I'm sure they will have lots of great advice. Weaning is tough. But good sleep is so important for her brain development. Good luck!

your milk supply is highest at night, theres a reason babies wake up at night.
i know thats not what you asked for but J. thouight id share since so many people gave wrong info on being sleep deprived, and not needing to eat.

to each their own though. if you want to wean, i'd try to cut down one at a time in the middle of the night

I'm not sure if this is a nursing issue or a sleep training issue. When you put her down to sleep at night the first time, do you nurse her to sleep? If so, this isn't a nursing issue as much as it is that she doesn't know how to self soothe, so she's looking to you to nurse every time she wakes a little at night. If this is the case, then I suggest that you need to start putting her to bed when she is sleepy but awake, so she learns to put herself to sleep.

If you are sure she does know how to go to sleep on her own, then she is reverse cycling - getting most of her nutrition at night since that is when you are there (it's common with working moms, you can get more info on Kellymom.com). If this is the case, then I might suggest that you keep nursing for a bit longer, until she's ready for real food at age one, because you want to make sure she's getting enough nutrition. Once she's eating real food during the day, she won't be as hungry at night and she should start to sleep better.

IMO, you need to wait a little longer since your milk will be her primary nourishment til 12 months, at least. Since you are nursing, please read about weaning at kellymom.com. If she's reverse cycling, then you will also need to consider her daytime intake. If she's not eating enough and not taking bottles, then she NEEDS to wake up at night to nurse. Kellymom has info on reverse cycling, too.

You need to start trying to help her find ways to go back to sleep without food. Is there someone other then you that can get up with her at night and try to sooth her without food? It will make for a long few nights, but in the end it will be worth it. But I would not leave her to cry, at least not for more then 5 minutes at a time to see if she will self settle, I always went in if they did not settle in 5 minutes or less.

Thanks everyone for your answers,please allow me to clarify.Im trying to achieve two things here. One my daughter does not know how to self soothe so she wakes up all night to nurse. So I would like to get her on a sleep schedule. She goes down everynight at 8pm and wakes every 2 to 3 hours to nurse. Two, I am slowly trying to wean her while I do love nursing my baby and the special bond that we have I want her to be completely weaned by age one. She stays home with her grandmother during the day and she drinks breast milk water or baby juice from the cup through out the day. Because she is so against having her milk from any other source other than me without a fight we feed her a balanced age appropriate diet as well. I make all of her baby food using the baby bullet.

KEEP with the sippy cup. Are you pumping? Is she drinking breast milk from the sippy? Or are you trying to put formula in the sippy? If you are using formula, make sure it's the same temp as your breast milk.

Don't go to a bottle. You'll just have to transition her off of that too.

If you had explained what she drinks during the day while you're at work, it would have helped with people's answers.

Just wondering - what does she drink from during the day when you are at work? And how do the weekends go where you are home to breastfeed her during the day?

I didn't have a magic age for them to be weaned. I went by what they wanted. Made so much more sense. Each baby/toddler was different.

If she's waking at night for multiple feedings, it's time I would think to cut back on those. The thing is if you feed at night, they will pee and wake up. So it's a bit of a cycle - then sometimes you have to feed them to get back to sleep.

Mine were breastfed until about 10-11 months old. I also had introduced bottles earlier though - in part so I could leave them, and also to supplement, and I weaned from breast to bottle very gradually. There was no process really - just whatever worked and the babies liked. Mine kept bottles until they were toddlers. However, they drank from sippy cups most of the time. They just had a bottle before nap time and bed until they were ready (themselves) to drop them.

But I would up the food and milk before bedtime. Get her good and full as much as you can - our breast milk tends to be lower in the evenings because we're tired. So drink lots of water, and see if you can't get more into her during the days.

Good luck :)