WEANING thread...Come and share your experiences and offer support.

[CaedensMama]

Thanks Sabrina!

He is actually doing quite well with the sippy already -so that is good. He is doing about 8-10 oz of juice/water and at least 8 oz of rice or cow's milk each day - plus a good amount of cheese! I offer the sippy at meals and when he is wanting to "snack" on me mid day. I am finding the distraction helps too - he is fine if he's not thinking about it and actually when we have been out the last 2 days and I have offered the breast he isn't wanting it as there is too much going on. 
I am working on right now dropping to the 4 feeds a day and trying to stick with that for maybe the next month and then dropping the 2 day feeds at least, we'll see if he weans himself or the milk disappears and helps it along   - I have heard the 12-14 weeks mark is usually when you see the biggest drop in milk. At this point I am getting okay with the thought of completly weaning him sooner then later and maybe he won't associate the baby with HIS milk instead of weaning him closer to the time, ya know. I am kinda leaving it up to him and my body though. I would be okay keeping the 2 feeds a bit longer if it works out.
Thanks for the advice, I'll let you know how we are doing!

[Lilah'sMommy]

With my last pregnancy (which I miscarried), I noticed a big reduction in supply very early on, about 6 weeks or so.  But there was still a bit there.  As soon as I miscarried, it came back in all its glory.  This time, my supply was adequate up until the 10 week mark, when it just dropped right off.  Slowed to a trickle, seriously.  So I guess it's different with different pregnancies.  After a couple weeks of trying to keep going with nursing, dd and I were both getting very frustrated, so we dropped the morning feed with no trouble.  Then I would still offer the evening feed.  Then, last week, I stopped offering that one, too.  She asks for it occasionally, but only as a kind of suggestion, and glady takes her sippy cup ('cause there's sure a whole lot more in there anyway!), a cuddle, and some books at bedtime.  As of July 4th, we have finished nursing.  I think it will be an easier transition now-- she has a whole 6 months to go without mama milk, which should serve to make it much less "hers".  Though it's a bittersweet rite of passage, I think it was the right time for us.

[CaedensMama]

Sabrina - have you ever read that book about "the last times" - something along the lines of "if I had known it would be the last time I watched you swing on the baby swings, the last time you ran and jumped into my arms, etc, we celebrate all the first times but sometimes the last times are the milestone" - it's one of those tear jerker mom books - I can find the name of it if you haven't seen it yet.
It's a bittersweet thought for me too thinking of weaning, but I know it is right for us too - I loved the adventures in tandem Nursing book, would highly recomend it to anyone, but it made me realize i really don't want to tandem nurse I don't think I can handle it. That's why I think I need to work on weaning sooner then later.

I am wondering if my milk supply has dropped down though, he has been less interested during the day and seems to be spreading his feeds out on his own - and often will only nurse like 15 seconds when I do offer it, maybe there's not much there, not sure how to check though, I can always get some to squirt out myself

[MamaC]

My hats off to you mommies that are nursing and pregnant!  I am ready to start weaning my ds.  We are down to two feedings, am and pm.  Any opinions on which is easier to drop?  I love them both but I am really ready to be done so that we can start working on number two!  (I want some time with my body to myself....)  Any opinions welcome!

[Lilah'sMommy]

Jennifer, it sounds like that book would make me bawl like a baby!  I can't handle anything sentimental with these pregnancy hormones flying around!

MamaCobb-- It all depends on your baby.  For Lilah, it was the bedtime feed that was sacrosanct.  It was so much part of the routine.  But your baby may be different.  Drop whatever feels right to you.

[MamaC]

Life happened and it was a good day to drop the a.m. feeding on Wednesday.....ds was fine.  I did have to have a little cry though.  I'm thinking that I'll nurse him at night for as long as he'll have it now.... we'll see.  Thanks for the opinion, Lilah's Mommy!

[Beata]

Hi everyone...well it's been a while for us, and I though I would just share...I think we fully weaned about 2 months ago now, and I think I tried to nurse once or twice during that time, and Cate doesn't even seem to remember what ther were for in the first place!!!!! 

All I can say is I really had an amazing time nursing, and did wean because I was ready to at 1 year...but Cate went with it, and we never had to use formula...and I just feel like I gave her a head start in nutrition, etc. Cheers to everyone.

So to all you moms worrying about weaning...just do the best you can and enjoy every minute.

Beata

[Samuel's mum]

Well done Beata - that sounds like a very happy weaning experience!
What an achievement - a year. Brilliant.

[ashtonsmummy]

my lo is alergic to all formulas except one wich is the nutrigen i believe it is called, anyway he hates it he is 9 mnths now and i will be going back to work in sept a little earlier than planned so my question is how do i wean him from bf altogether and can i just go straight to a sippy cup i dont bf durning the nite any more either

[mrs_kat]

Hi there!  I confess that I haven't read all of the posts.  I was hoping for a little insight from those of you who have weaned or are in the process.  With babies who self-weaned, did you find that they took more solids as they took less milk, stayed the same, or ate less? 

I ask because Kenzi is 11.5 mo and has been showing signs of not wanting to nurse other than first thing in the morning.  But she's also cut way down on her solids, which is why I hesitate to say, she must be self-weaning and I should let my milk production slow down and introduce cow's milk.  I feel like she's hardly eaten anything these past two days. 

We were planning to wean at a year but I hate to do it if she's not making up for it with her meals.  If any of you have babies who self-weaned, maybe you can let me know what that looked like for you.  Thanks!

[Jusser]

Hi Mrs Kat, my LO started to self-wean from about 9.5 months, and it got to the stage at 10.5 months where my period had come back and I just didn't seem to be producing any milk at all, so we fully weaned at this point (although I had so wanted to go to a year).  I have read that it is very rare for a baby to self-wean at less than 18 months, but I can tell you my LO had much more interest in solid food from about 9 months and it definitely was not me instigating the weaning. .  As Beata said, Felix now seems to not even know what my breasts are any more, he just plays with them !  To answer your question, yes he did definitely replace his BFs with solids and although he has off-days when he is tired or teething, he generally eats 3 goods meals and 2 small snacks each day.  At the moment I just give him one bottle of formula at night and will probably replace that with goats milk when he turns 1 year.  I don't know about you but I found giving up BF very emotional.  It has been about 4 weeks now and I have only just started to feel a bit better about it.  I SO wanted to do at least a year (I have eczema and asthma) and it had gone so well up to about 9 months, but I simply couldn't force my LO to nurse...  I leaked a tiny bit, not badly at all, but that seems to have stopped now, and you know what, since giving up BF he has had an ear infection (for which he had to have his first antibiotic), a skin rash and nappy rash. He had never had so much as a cold before !  This could be coincidence as we did fly to London so that could have contributed to the ear infection, and he is definitely teething so maybe that accounts for the nappy rash, but my, I felt so guilty about it and convinced myself that it was the end to BF causing this.  Anyway, enough rambling, I think I'm getting over it eventually  .  I didn't realise quite how emotional the whole thing would be.

[twitchy]

Hello All,
This is my first post, although I've been looking around the boards a bit in the last couple of weeks...
My 9 month old DD is breastfed and I am looking for some advice on how/when to start weaning her. She currently has 4 breastfeeds a day plus 3 meals. She doesn't usually have any snacks as she doesn't seem hungry for them.

Her current eating routine is as follows:
7:30 wake up and bf
8:30 breakfast
11:30ish bf when she gets up from her nap
12:30 lunch
3:30ish bf when she gets up from her nap
5:30/6 dinner
7ish bf before bed

I am going back to work in October, so I figure I will need to cut out the 2 breastfeeds that happen during the day (11:30 and 3:30) but I'm wondering how to do it and when? She seems pretty happy with the amount of food she's getting right now, so I'm wondering if I can wait until closer to the time I'm going back to work to start cutting feeds? I plan to keep up the first thing in the morning and last thing at night breastfeeds for as long as we're both happy with them. I imagine she will drop them on her own sometime after her 1st birthday?? I have once or twice tried giving her lunch as soon as she gets up from her morning nap, and this has worked fine, I just find it hard because I'm single side feeding and this makes for a veeerrrry long gap.

I'm also wondering what the best way to breastfeed is when you're only doing a few feeds a day? I currently feed her single side, but am wondering if the long gap between feeds would cause my supply to peter out? i.e. if I fed her on the right breast at 7pm but then didn't feed from the right until 3:30 the next day, would that be too big of a gap??

Any suggestions on how you went about this would be really appreciated!

[mrs_kat]

Hey twitchy!  We dropped to three feeds at 10 months.  Instead of feeding right after the am nap, you could give lunch instead and then breastfeed right before the pm nap.  This is what we do now, but Kenzi's pm nap is later than your dd's so maybe you could give a small snack when she wakes up to tide her over till dinnertime.  Or give a small snack before the pm nap and bf when she wakes up.  Hopefully someone else can give you advise on how to handle the single sided feeding.

[Lilah'sMommy]

We didn't drop lower than 4 feeds until after Lilah's first birthday.  At that point, we replaced the two mid-day feeds with cow's milk over the course of the month.  We kept up the morning and evening feeds until 22 months, when we finally weaned completely.  As for the single-side feeds, I can't offer any advice.  Hope someone else can help you out.

[chargerfans]

I am a working Mom and I nursed my son for his first year. When he hit the one year mark I was ready to wean and so was he. I Since I work full time I would be pumping constantly. I would pump 3 times during the day and nurse at night. On the weekends I would just nurse 3-4 times a day. So here's what I did

 had started introducing whole milk in a sippy and also in his cereal. At first he would only take a sip or a bite and then refuse it. After about 4 days he started to eat/drink it. I started with the morning bottle. Normally, if I was home, I would nurse him. So about 2 weeks prior to even attempting to wean to whole milk I decided to get him used to having the bottle only first thing in the morning. Once he was used to that we started with 2 oz whole milk to 6 oz EBM for the morning bottle and now added an afternoon bottle. He took the nipple out of his mouth a few times and inspected it but after about 5 "nipple inspections" he drank the whole bottle. So now he has a morning bottle, an afternoon bottle, and nurse at night. I decreased 1 pumping too. I didn't feel engorged or anything. Then after 3 days we went to 4 oz EBM to 4 oz Whole milk. And I decreased 1 more pumping. Still no engorgement. He didn't even bat an eye with the mixture of milk. But after the 2nd day of 1/2 and 1/2 milk he refused to nurse that night. When my husband made him a straight whole milk bottle he guzzled it. So now I was engorged! I pumped just a little bit the next morning to relieve some pressure.

So he was now on straight whole milk after less than 1 week. Not quite my plan but he made up his mind. Sure enough, the next night he had an accident and hurt his tooth/lip/mouth and all he wanted to do is nurse. So nursing was back on in full swing and since I stayed home with him he just nursed all day long. I was worried that we would have to start all over again but once his mouth felt better he took to the whole milk in the bottle like a pro. But now Mom had more milk!!! So that has been a struggle. I have been uncomfortable for days and I am using the cabbage leaves which seems to help. There is definitely a decrease in milk but I am still very sore.

So for all you Mommas who are ready to wean to milk (whether it be soy, whole etc) I would suggest the following -

6 oz EBM to 2 oz whole milk - 3 days and decrease 1 pumping
4 oz EBM to 4 oz whole milk - 3 days and decrease 1 pumping
2 oz EBM to 6 oz whole milk - 3 days and decrease 1 pumping
Then all whole milk!!!

This is easier for those Moms who pump and also nurse..... Not sure how you would do it if you just nursed and your baby wasn't used to the bottle... Maybe just offer more milk in the sippy and skip 1 nursing time?

Good luck. I loved nursing my son and was very emotional when it all stopped. It will be nice to have "me" back but at the same time I really miss having that one on one with my son.