Breastfeeding after 1 year, and what kind of milk to start LO on?

[AMJ]

Hi to all,

My daughter is almost 11 months old. She is breastfed 4 times a day and has 3 meals (solids). She started (again) to ask for more breast but I'm wondering if that's because she is hungry and now needs some snacks added to her day.

Anyways my question is what happens with breastfeeding after 1 year. I know "solids before 1 are for fun" and breast milk is the most important, but after 1 a child supposed to have 3 meals with solids, 2-3 snacks but I'm not sure how many breastfeeds. And where does the cow's/goat's milk fits in? Do you just substitute few of the breastfeeding with cow's/goat's milk and still keep 4 milk feedings per day or do you add cow's/goat's milk to the breastfeeds?

what do you give you little ones, cow's or goat's milk, or other milk?

Please educate me!

Thank you

[MasynSpencerElliotte]

At that age I think most lo's are doing a morning and bedtime feed...my older two were on formula by then but that is what we did. As for other milks, well I would think they are only necessary if you need an alternative to bf for some reason (ie if you are working and they are in daycare or with a sitter or just for them to have an alternate and get used to the taste). If your lo is not intolerant to dairy here they recommend whole milk at one and actually say to keep them on formula otherwise until two (not sure on goats milk though!). I dont really remember what age we added a snack - they were both in daycare part time so probably did have at least a morning snack those days.

[amayzie]

We BF till just recently (oops- gotta fix my ticker!) and after one e dropped to 2 feeds, morning and night none overnight. They don't NEED other milk as such- they just need to have enough calcium. My guy used to have the breastfeeds as well as cheese and yoghurt- sometimes the odd cows milk drink, but he wasn;t a massive fan of it so i didn't bother that much with it.

[weaver]

Yes, just noticing that you maybe want to know about bfing after one year as well as 'other' milks.

My LO1 bf'd til 17 mos, at which point I was pg and very tired so I needed to wean him.  Bit sorry I did.  At that point he was on morning and BT feeds, and the occasional bonus feed if he needed it for emotional reasons!  LO2 is now 21 mos and still bfing.  We weaned the BT feed, to make things more flexible for me, and that's been a really great way to avoid feeling trapped by extended bfing.  She's still doing WU feed, and an afternoon one when I'm at home, as well as occasional demand feeds. 

Interestingly, LO1 has never cared for cows' milk, though I have and do offer it to him.  LO2, still bfing, is madly keen on the stuff and gulps it down happily. 

As Katy says, it's about calcium, rather than milk, as such.  He can get calcium from other dairy and from lots of veg sources.

[Shiv52]

I BF both mine beyond a year and we did morn and BT feeds and probably one feed in the day. I used cows milk on cereal and started to offer cows milk as a drink at dinner time.

HTH x

[cath~]

At 12 mos L had a morning bf and an evening cup of warm cows milk . Plus cows milk on cereal/porridge.

All other drinks were water and snacks were solid food, not milk,.

[*Ali*]

I kept 4 BFs until my boys went to 1 nap and it seemed natural to drop the feed that would have usually have been after the second nap. That was 12mo and 15mo respectively. DS1 dropped to 2 feeds a day around 15mo (I think) and had morning and BT until 24mo then just BT until 26mo when we weaned. DS2 had 3 feeds until around 22 or 23mo and he dropped the morning BF and kept the midday BF after lunch and BT. We dropped the lunch time BF around 24mo and then the BT BF when we weaned at 26mo.

At 12mo with DS1 when we were on one nap we did BF, breakfast, early lunch, (nap), BF, dinner, BT BF. If we were out for the nap we didn't bother with the after nap BF and had a small snack instead. Once we dropped to 2 BFs we had a snack when he woke up from his nap instead.

I never replaced BFs with milk really apart from maybe at 26mo when we dropped the BT BF I let them have a few warm cups of milk after dinner for a week or so but then we just went to water that they took to bed in a sippy cup. Milk was just a drink offered when they wanted a drink or when I offered a drink with a meal. I would offer water, very diluted juice or milk and they picked between them pretty evenly actually. Now they both drink 2-3 small cups of milk a day at their request.

It isn't only calcium they get from milk btw, fat and the fat soluble vitamins it contains are equally important. As pps say that can all come from other dairy like yogurt or cheese as well as non-dairy sources.

[AMJ]

Thank you so much to all of you for replying. I really appreciat it. I guess we will just start cutting down the afternoon bf and go from there. I always though I will bf till 1 year but now I think I am happy to continue longer.

Thanks again!