Extended BFers: problems weaning to milk (**Flyer**)

momofolivia

this is a bigger struggle then I realized.  The tranistion to sippys was easy - as long as their was BM in it.  Once I started to slowing put in different milk (DD has milk allergy so we have tried, rice milk, vanilla rice milk, almond milk, soy milk, vanilla soy milk).  I have tried chocolate milk. 

Nothing is working.  DD nurses at 7am, 7pm, 10pm, 3am.  She barely drinks anything during the day.  I am thinking that I am just going to have to keep nursing at night to make up for the milk she isn't drinking.  I'll still give her rice milk (or whatever) at daycare, but know that she won't drink it.

this is very frustrating.  any advice?

molldoll71

Hmm - we got Billy to take milk by putting it in his bottle and then worried about weaning from the bottle later - he was off his last one by 15 months.  What happens if you put it in the bottle?  Once he was on whole milk during the day, I stopped offering him the breast - we just did the first in the am and last in the bm nursing sessions - which he dropped himself by about 14 months.  Has she always had so many night feedings?  By 12 months Billy was going from 8:00 pm until 6:00 am without feeding.  Is she eating enough solids?  Sounds like she is still doing reverse cycling and taking all her milk at night. 

momofolivia

She has always woken up thru the night.  this schedule is very pared down from earlier months!  We droppedthe bottles successfully about 6 weeks ago, so I would be hesitant to bring them back.  But it might be worth a try.  She had no attachment to the bottles, so it took two days to move her to sippies.

molldoll71

Yikes - I don't know what to tell you - many hugs!  We had bottle issues and sippy cup issues and food issues and sleep issues and they all worked out - so my bad advice is hang in there - won't last forever

Mrs_JR

I also answered on the toddler board, but it's getting a little buried.

Maya was a boobie addict too.  I stopped pumping at work at 11 months because I was sick of it and had enough to get us through a year.  I continued to nurse in the am, after work, and at bedtime.  At 13 months we dropped the after work session, at 14 months we dropped the bedtime session, and at 15 months we dropped the am session.

She did not want to drink whole milk at first either.  She actually wouldn't drink much EBM from a sippy either and refused it from the bottle starting at 9 months.  When we first introduced whole milk I tried mixing it with EBM, warming it, adding chocoalte syrup, and none of that worked.  I finally tried mixing it with a little bit of drinkable yogurt to flavor it and TA DA!  She drank an entire cup.  We started backing off on how much yogurt we mixed in there and now she drinks plain milk just fine.   Good luck!

flyer23

Does she drink water? And plenty of solids? If so, don't worry about her not drinking milk during the day, especially since she's nursing so much at night.

I've posted before about this, but we had a huge struggle to transition Mia to non-breastmilk, and she had a ~2 month period where she didn't drink any milk during the day and only nursed 2x/day. And she was fine.

Keep offering. Try the drinkable yogurt trick like Mrs_JR suggested -- it didn't work for Mia, but I know it's worked for quite a few other babies. Mostly, try not to get frustrated. It's your job to offer her a variety of healthy options to consume. It's her job to eat/drink them, or not, as the case may be!

Oh, we've been trying vanilla hemp milk the past few days, just to mix things up a bit (Mia still drinks vanilla soymilk fine). She seems to really like it. Worth a shot

momofolivia

Thanks ladies!  I will try the yogurt and the hemp milk (I assume I can get this at a health food store?).  One of our issues is when I offer her the sippy she just looks at it, shakes her head and does this little (cute) noise that sounds likes "how dare you offer that filth to me!"

madhatter2003

Does she eat other sources of calcium like soy cheese, yogurts, etc? If so don't stress about the milk. They need far less milk once they are over 1, in fact my doc said not to give more than 16-20 oz a day max otherwise they are drinking their calories rather than eating them. As long as she is getting other sources of calcium she can drink what she wants really.

Angela814

Have you tried mixing bm with the other milk?  Can she eat any other dairy products like yogurt or cheese?  Will she drink water during the day?

At that age DD was nursing 6am, noon, 6pm, 8:30pm, midnight, and 3am, so your nursing schedule sounds pretty normal to me.

momofolivia

we tried mixing BM and milk.  no go.

I give her yogurt, but not on a daily basis.  I haven't found any soy cheeses, but I will try our natural food store instead of the grocery store. 

momofolivia

oh - i do give her applesauce with added calcium, but not daily either.

flyer23

Our local grocery story has hemp milk. They have a decent organic/health food section. It's mixed in with the other unrefrigerated boxed milk alternatives -- soy milk, rice milk, almond milk. Otherwise, yeah, try a health food store, or a natural food store.