Stopping breastfeeding
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I also let my husband feed her those bottles at the start as I was worried she'd look for the boob. Now I can feed her those bottles too no problem
We always had bottles as part of our routine (expressed), which probably made it easier. I went cold turkey on the boob and we moved to exclusive pumping, then we slowly introduced cow’s milk over a few weeks, similar to the comment above. So we started with 90% breast milk and slowly upped the amount of cow’s milk vs breastmilk until it was basically pure cow’s milk. Literally had zero issues - she didn’t even seem to miss the boob, she only pulled on my top once or twice when we knew she was hungry, and she was totally happy once she got a bottle instead ❤️
Thanks both! I guess my biggest problem is he doesn’t always take breast milk from a bottle, let alone cows milk! Regardless of which milk, one day he’ll drink the whole bottle (only 90ml/ 3oz max, he’s always been more of a snacker!) then the next nothing! So I know he can and that he likes cows milk 🤷🏽♀️ he can be really fussy like that with food as well though! From a cup he’ll take a couple sips of milk but not drink properly. He drinks water well though from open cup/ munchkin 360. Hasn’t sussed a straw yet! My gut feeling is those middle feeds really aren’t for hunger, they’re for comfort but I don’t really know what to do about it 🤣 x
@Kirsty I just do one boob one night and the other boob the second night so essentially feeding every 48 hours from a boob. This was reduced from 3-4 feeds per day and was done over a period of about 2-3 weeks. I only did this transition around Christmas time and it's been absolutely fine. I used to feed before first nap and again before second but I just reduced the second nap milk first (as it was usually after her lunch and was given out of habit), and following her no longer needing that, I stopped feeding for the first nap too. I just ensured she'd had a mid morning snack before putting down for nap and rocked to sleep. I also realised she didn't need her first milk of the day - she just needed breakfast and was actually affecting her appetite when I fed first thing so hence the final feed I dropped was the morning one. I think I could probably wean entirely as she doesn't really have much at the one feed anymore, I've just not worked out how to stop altogether yet 😂😂
Not BF related but omg how CUTEEEEE is your little one 😍🥺!!!
I think you can drop the middle of the day feeds cold turkey if you want to!! If you're still planning to BF morning and evening that's 2 feeds which is enough at this age (this is all I do now). And during the day when he's at nursery he can just have water with his solids. This is what my son (13 months) does as he is like yours and just started refusing any kind of milk in a bottle/cup when he hit about 9.5/10 months just as I was returning to work despite always being fine taking expressed milk or formula in bottles since birth!!! He also has plenty of dairy in the form of yogurt and cheese so if it's the same for your LO I wouldn't worry!
@Katie thank you, this is really helpful!! I’m just a bit worried he wouldn’t go down just being rocked and have a tantrum as he expects milk! But I guess if he’s tired enough he will! 😩 I realise now how many bad habits I created that I won’t be doing next time 🤣
@Anna hahaha thank you!! He got blessed with great hair 🤣
@Kirsty thank you! That’s true, and I think maybe he might eat more food if he’s not getting the milk 🤷🏽♀️ how did your body adjust to this though? On a nursery day if I don’t pump midday and go 7:30am-5pm my boobs are agony and need to feed him by then! 😩
@Kirsty when I was preparing to go back to work I dropped 1x feed every 5 days and that worked really well for me. So in your case you have 2 feeds to drop, so I'd drop the first one (or the second one whichever is easier to start with) and still pump for the other one. Then after 5 days your body should have started adjusting enough that you can then drop the second one without getting overly engorged. You may feel a little full to begin with when you first start to drop but it will get a lot better even after just a couple of days. If you really need to you can always squeeze out a little bit of milk just to take the edge off but don't do too much or your body won't adjust properly. If you feel like it's not adjusted enough after 5 days you could always increase this to 7 days before you drop the other feed. This method worked really well for me so hopefully it will for you too Xx
No advice as I'm still feeding aaaall night and at least 2x during the day but OMG, his hair 😍
@Becky 🤣🤣 thank you! It’s sooo long!
@Kirsty just wanted to say thank you sooo much for this, I’ve done exactly what you said and have managed to cut out one of the day feeds! Weirdly the past 4 nights he’s slept through for the first time ever as well so have unexpectedly cut out the night feeds! My body seems to have adjusted to it now which is sooo good, was a painful few days though. Just 3 feeds in 24 hours now 🥹 kind of emotional about it! Xx
I've managed to go from 3 to 1 BF and mainly focused on it over the Xmas break. My LO did eventually take to a MAM trainer bottle at nursery, so when weaning her, I was pumping and mixing it with cows' milk, so she adjusted to the taste. E.g. she drinks 6oz breastmilk, so I did 5oz BM and 1 oz cows milk, and every 2 days I added more cows milk and less BM. And I just focused on 1 feed at a time. I only have the morning feed to wean now I hope you manage to wean! Does he drink well from a straw or open cup with water? Could you try and offer a small amount of cows milk (or nixture of cows and breastmilk) in one of them and see if he'll take to it?