Weaning

[Liahona]

I did a really stupid thing. I took one of difficult child 2's pills instead of mine a few nights ago. I had to pump and throw the milk away. Cherub was not happy with a bottle. Then I got a milk blister from pumping. Very painful for her to nurse. The pediatrician said if I let her nurse past 15 months I'll have problems weaning her because the nursing will be more for emotional comfort than food.

Cherub just doesn't eat very much normal food. She doesn't want to eat much. She plays with it, and then nurses. If it weren't for the blister I wouldn't be considering weaning her.

husband thinks I should wean her. We spent most of the day in the ER because he broke his left foot (small break and ankle sprain) and severely sprained his right ankle. Cherub was left with my sisters. She was mostly ok, but towards evening she was getting frantic to nurse. She doesn't know what to do with a bottle, sippy cup, or regular cup.

I'm thinking of restricting nursing until evening. And to keep offering bottles, food, sippies, ect.. Thanks for letting me think out loud here.

 

[1905]

Does she eat normal food at all? If she does I can tell you my experience. My youngest was 15 months old and eating normal food but he wouldn't drink any other way. One day I did a stupid thing and drank a Slimfast. I could never pump, it was painful, so I just weaned cold turkey from that moment on. It was a rough couple of days, but then he got over it. That was the end of it. I didn't know how to wean him honestly, although I would have liked to much sooner. Weaning slowly would have been more difficult in my humble opinion.

 

[Liahona]

Yeah she eats some food. I've never had to wean a child before. I would get pregnant and my milk would dry up. This is the longest I've been able to breastfeed a child.

 

[Liahona]

I am getting beaten up by a one year old.

 

[DDD]

Best of luck. I have no experience to share but sending caring thoughts. DDD

 

[SuZir]

I too wish you luck. I typed something about weaning of my boys, but erased it because that would certainly not be helpful (I did have much more help for it than you probably do and much easier deal all the way.) Si I just keep you and Cherub on my thoughts and hope she gives up quickly and it doesn't end up to be too big of the ordeal.

And hopefully your husband also recovers quickly and is more able to help you than he likely currently is.

 

[Liahona]

She figured out the bottle today! Yeah! I was so relieved. She also ate more solid food than she normally does.

*husband and her have been bonding today. They have been together most of the day, and it has been very cute.

 

[susiestar]

I am guessing she is now over a year old not the 6 mos in the profile. What do your instincts say about nursing? I know a lot of docs who are very against nursing after some point between 9 mos and a year but I don't really see why. If it works for you and her then do what your instincts tell you is right. I was different with each child because each child had different ideas on the subect. Wiz lost interest around 13 mos because he got more interested in regular food. Jess was done long before I was, and went to a bottle totally by 4 or 5 months. She went on cereal by 3 mos because she was just hungry. She was taking and wanting and needing 10 oz at 6 weeks. The doctor told me I could not be producing that much and she wasn't eating that much. I was going back to work and had to get her used to a bottle and she would cry and scream if you gave her less. I was pumping for daycare and easily producing 10 oz at a time with some left over. She tried a bottle and it didn't take an hour to fill her belly so she was pretty well done nursing by her choice except for at bedtime and then she was done with bedtime nursing a few months later. With thank you I needed to take some medications when he was five months and it was safe to nurse and take the medication but he didn't appreciate the taste change. So he went to formula too.

If it is right for the child and for you, go ahead and wean. If your gut says otherwise, follow your gut. I would limit daytime nursing to after she has eaten real food because at her stage in development, she needs real food to grow and develop properly. She may just not like baby food. Jess mostly hated it. She wanted what we ate, not jarred stuff or stuff that we mashed up. She did fine on mostly table foods and little baby food. It is the nutrients in food that Cherub is needing, and if she is able to learn to eat other foods she may lose interest in nursing and wean herself. I was homeschooling Wiz when thank you was little and got a whole new perspective on nursing from the homeschool moms. They fully supported nursing as long as it was right for mom and child, up to about age 3 or 4. Many of us stopped earlier because it was what was right for us, but more than a few nursed well past age 1 and up to as old as 4. The support of the group was really great, and fostered my belief that my instincts were more reliable than many of my doctor's ideas/beliefs were.

 

[AnnieO]

Lia, I just finally got Rose completely weaned (I hope). She's just over 13 months now.

I didn't know how I was ever going to stop nursing her at night... About a month before her birthday I stopped pumping at lunch, 2 weeks before I started giving her expressed milk in a sippy, then when she turned a year whole milk. But at night... Sigh.

Then on Halloween we were out at my parents' at bedtime and she ended up going to sleep without nursing, but the next night I had to. So for a week or so it was every other night, then I started stretching it out as long as I could. On Friday night I was kind of hurting so I figured what the heck - but it feels WEIRD and wrong. So that's that. She loves milk from a sippy - plain, with a little flavoring, warm, cold... So I'm good.

 

[greenrene]

Definitely follow your gut, but I disagree with your pediatrician saying it will be hard to wean after 15 months. Both of my older boys nursed until they were 2 - they both basically self-weaned at that point. I plan to nurse this one until 2 as well.

 

[DammitJanet]

I was strictly a bottle feeder so I dont have a lot of experience but I know my daughter in law had a heck of a time with her oldest daughter. She nursed completely and that child wouldnt take a bottle at all, even if she had to go out and someone else had to feed her while she was gone. It was horrible.

Personally I wouldnt start her on a bottle but would go straight to a sippy cup. They have the ones with the very soft nipples which are almost like a bottle. My reasoning is that you are weaning her to a bottle and she shouldnt even be on a bottle at her age. We had Monkey on the cup full time at 8 months and Mouse did it a bit later because they were lazy. She lasted until a year when I kept throwing all the bottles away when I found one. She has been sticking to the soft lids though especially at night. It kills me that she is so addicted to the cup at night because she will wake up in the middle of the night looking for her cup. Then she wakes everyone else up.

Now oddly, during the day she wants to drink out of a cup without a lid and I flip out because she ends up spilling it. Heck, I just took Monkey off the cups with lids that look like a regular cup but they wont spill. I still use a sports bottle for her instead of regular cups. I hate spilled drink!

I will give you a hint on how we got Monkey onto the cup so early. We started at 6 months and gave her either her juice in the cup or even a little bit of chocolate flavored milk. Well actually I flavored her formula. She thought the cup gave good stuff! Her daycare was a bit surprised and said she was the only 8 month old they had who didnt take a bottle. But doing it that early she didnt have the attachment to the bottle.

 

[AnnieO]

We just stopped using bottles and started using sippies right about a year. Rose adores straws so I got some with the soft straws... They are a PITA to clean but worth it as she drains the cup!!!

Also... She doesn't get anything to drink right before bed anymore.

Paci is next...

 

[Liahona]

Thank you for all the advice. I want to let her nurse before bed and after getting up. She is fine the rest of the day not nursing. I think Janet has a great idea of using sippies instead of bottles. Cherub doesn't like bottles anyway, and Buster loves them. He steals them when ever he can.

 

[DammitJanet]

LOL on Buster stealing the bottles.

Cory and Jamie are exactly 2 years and 13 days apart. When I had Cory, Jamie somehow remembered bottles but wasnt exactly sure what it was. He kept trying to sneak a bottle until one day he took it from Cory and tried to drink the formula. The look on his face was priceless. He spit it out and told us it was bad and we needed to give his brother chocolate milk instead!