Can you please share your weaning experience?

Ryan is 10 months old and since day 1 has been EBF.

He takes a sippy with water well. So I am hoping he will do well with milk in the cup too.

I have an idea of how I plan to wean. Once he is a year - slowly dropping a feeding every 5-7 days.

But there are days where he nurses for soothing versus hunger and I'm not quite sure how to deal with that. I suppose I need to just offer something as a distraction?

I really feel like BFing has helped so much with crying, tantrums, over tiredness, soothing, etc...I'm just not sure how I am going to get by without it!

So if you could share your experience, I'd really appreciate it! I am nervous and scared just thinking about it.

Re: Can you please share your weaning experience?

No advice for weaning at thatage because we did it around 7 months.....but good luck!

Re: Can you please share your weaning experience?

Just to throw this out there???? If you enjoy breastfeeding still and because it is such a wonderful tool for soothing why are you weaning???

Have you every considered continuing past 1 year and letting him self wean or maybe just weaning down to only a few sessions a day but not cutting it out completely??

I'm not criticizing but I feel like in the U.S. they put soooo much emphasis on weaning at year when babies really could benefit from breastfeeding past 1 year emotionally and physically.

You need to do what is right for you, and your child. I'm just bringing up that maybe you don't have to wean completely quite yet!

Re: Can you please share your weaning experience?

For us the feedings started to drop as solid foods started. By 10 or 11 months DD was having 3 meals a day and was down to only 3 or 4 nursing sessions a day.

At 11 months we started milk in a sippy with meals and she gradually drank more and more.

By 12 months she was only nursing first thing in the morning and at bedtime. I got pregnant when she was 11 months and planned to wean her by the end of my first trimester. We dropped the morning feeding a little after 12 months and a month later the bedtime one. FREEDOM!!!!!! I loved nursing but it had been 13 months of having to be there to put her to bed every night. It was so nice to be able to let DH or my Mom put her to bed sometimes and let me relax or get things done. I actually had a miscarriage and was a bit disappointed because I would have tried to nurse her until 18 months. However, she actually dictated the weaning, she got less interested, more active and was feeding less often and for less time. I don't think she would have wanted to do it past 14 or 15 months, she barely wanted to sit still anymore and has taken very well to milk and water in a sippy.

I'd recommend at least a couple of weeks in between dropping each feeding to give your body time to adjust. I was still producing milk a month after she stopped. Not much but it was there.

As far as comfort goes it was around this time that DD developed a "lovey". It's a pink dog we call "Paw paw" I find this helped comfort her (and the fact that she is a thumb sucker) through some times when we would have otherwise nursed.

Re: Can you please share your weaning experience?

Maria - I have given serious thought to BFing past a year. But, to be completely honest. The goal I set for myself when I got pregnant was to BF until he was 12 months. And so far am right on track with that and don't think I can really go much further. Although I love it and plan to do it with all subsequent children, I do not want to continue past 12 months. Like Patti said - bedtime is all me. Soothing is mostly all me. It's time to let DH step up to the plate

Most articles I have read say BFing the 1st year will provide the optimal benefit. Anything plus is really just gravy and at a point it actually isn't beneficial at all.

Now, at 10 months, the fact that he has almost perfected the word "boob" makes me feel like a year will be the end of this road for us. While I enjoy every moment, I am ready to close this chapter as difficult as it may be.

Re: Can you please share your weaning experience?

Posted by sunflowerjesss

Maria - I have given serious thought to BFing past a year. But, to be completely honest. The goal I set for myself when I got pregnant was to BF until he was 12 months. And so far am right on track with that and don't think I can really go much further. Although I love it and plan to do it with all subsequent children, I do not want to continue past 12 months. Like Patti said - bedtime is all me. Soothing is mostly all me. It's time to let DH step up to the plate

Most articles I have read say BFing the 1st year will provide the optimal benefit. Anything plus is really just gravy and at a point it actually isn't beneficial at all.

Now, at 10 months, the fact that he has almost perfected the word "boob" makes me feel like a year will be the end of this road for us. While I enjoy every moment, I am ready to close this chapter as difficult as it may be.

Re: Can you please share your weaning experience?

Posted by MrsRivera

Jess, I just want to let you know that you have truly been a source of inspiration to me. You always have uplifting words for EVERYONE who is BF, and you never have a shortage of great advice on the subject.

I think the job you have done is phenomenal. I literally can't imagine EBF for as long as you have--I also pump so that DH can give me "one feeding off" per day, and now that I'm back to work, I'm only actually nursing for 1/2 the feedings.

I just wanted to let you know what an inspiration you are to me, and I thought this might be the perfect time and place I'm hoping to wean DD around 8 months when I'm back to work after the summer--pumping at work is SO hard, and I've only been doing it one day!

Re: Can you please share your weaning experience?

Jess and beth to you both! BFing is hard and A LOT of commitment, so I commend you both!
BFing has been an up and down of good and bad! I am a million times happy that I stuck with it because around the 6 month mark it really started getting easier and easier and quicker too. The older she got the more "cuddlier" she got when she fed.

Kailey and I are in the process of weaning. Since I was with her she never took to a bottle. She is now 13 months old and I am more than ready to wean her! She has not grasped the concept of a sippy cup and having to lift it, but luckily she has no problem drinking from the sippy cups with a straw. She's a little messy and always seems to flick the milk, but she's drinking it, so I am not going to complain. The 1st week was hard! I took out 1 daytime feeding and if DH was home she was fine drinking her milk, but is he wasn't she climbed all over me crying Then I took out another daytime feeding and the same crying occured. We are in week 3 and she only BF morning and evening I found that if I distracted her or took her out of her playroom (where she normally BF) she didn't miss the BF.
When my DH is home next we are going to try to eliminate the evening feeding

Re: Can you please share your weaning experience?

I agree with one of the previous posters that I woudl probably drop a feeding and then wait a few weeks....

I nursed DS for 5 months, and then went back to work... so I nursed him then 3x a day, and he got a bottle 2x. When I coudnl't keep up with the pumping I dropped another feeding, so I was just nursing him in the am and before bed. Then a few months later we dropped the bedtime nursing. And recently we dropped the morning feeding. I definitely think it woudl have been upsetting to him to drop the feedings more quickly than that...

I also tried to spend some cuddle time as we dropped nursings.

I know what you mean about it being hard, but being ready to stop... I thnk this must be the definition of bittersweet! It was so hard for me to think of not doing with him the FIRST THING HE EVER DID. I thought about going past a year... but at 13 months now, i do admit that it feels so good to be free! I miss our special time, but now we'll just have different special times!

good luck!!!!!

Re: Can you please share your weaning experience?

I need help with this too - I'm 12 wks pregnant and DS is 13+ months still nursing morning and night. I know it's time for me to stop, but he is not interested in self-weaning - which was what I was hoping would happen when I got PG

Re: Can you please share your weaning experience?

I had to stop right away because he bit me, (kid has 6 teeth) I was so nervous to feed him after that. I just gave him a bottle of whole milk, and at first he didn't want it and would pull at my top, but I kept saying no, no, and eventually he took the bottle. I had to stop the whole milk because he was having the worst poops ever and his butt was raw, so I put him on Soy milk, and he loves it!!

Good luck!

Oh I had to pump a for a few seconds here and there to release some pressure in my boobs, took like 4 days for them to get back to normal.

Re: Can you please share your weaning experience?

After 12 months I nursed him when he wanted, whole milk at other times and he self-weaned at 21 months after I went away for a conference. He nursed once when I came back from being away and then it was goodbye to nursing. I don't think I could have weaned any other way.

Re: Can you please share your weaning experience?

Posted by sunflowerjesss

Posted by MrsRivera

Jess, I just want to let you know that you have truly been a source of inspiration to me. You always have uplifting words for EVERYONE who is BF, and you never have a shortage of great advice on the subject.

I think the job you have done is phenomenal. I literally can't imagine EBF for as long as you have--I also pump so that DH can give me "one feeding off" per day, and now that I'm back to work, I'm only actually nursing for 1/2 the feedings.

I just wanted to let you know what an inspiration you are to me, and I thought this might be the perfect time and place I'm hoping to wean DD around 8 months when I'm back to work after the summer--pumping at work is SO hard, and I've only been doing it one day!

Beth, can I just say that really brought a tear to my eye!! Thank you, thank you, thank you!!!!!!! I know BFing has become a minority in the US and I don't fault or judge anyone for whichever way they choose to nourish their child.

But, because of BFing not being the number once choice, I feel information and help can be hard to come by. So, I do try my best to offer as much advice and support as I can.

And like I mentioned earlier, I will miss those special sessions with Ryan where it is just him and I with that skin to skin contact, creating memories and bonds that will truly shape the rest of his life. But I do feel I have done right by him and offered him the best I possibly could. With that I am comfortable and confident in my decision to begin weaning at 12 months.

Now, with that said. Beth, you have been quite an inspiration to me as well. Pumping and dumping for 10+ days to maintain your supply. That deserves nothing less than a round of And that is just one situation in which I have really noticed your dedication to being the best mom you can be.

I know for a fact pumping can be so trying at times. I don't think there is anything else that can really make you feel like a "cow"! But, I know you find peace in knowing all of your efforts are providing the best source of nutrition for your thriving daughter.

With that said. I think your goal of 8 months is highly achievable for you. And I know you will do it!!!!