hello again! anyone not doing WCM?

MrsG071809

hi ladies!  I haven't been around much lately...work has been crazy hectic.  I can't believe all the babies are ONE now, where has the time gone?!?!

Anyway, I was just curious if anyone is still EBF, and not introducing WCM (or any other milk for that matter)?  We haven't really changed anything since she turned one, she still gets bottles during the day and nurses at night and on the weekends.  I am planning to let her wean whenever she is ready, but would like to quit pumping at work.  She won't take BM in a sippy cup, so for now she is still on bottles.  I see so much about people switching to WCM at one year, but I don't really plan to do that.  I think if she is still getting BM in the evenings and weekends, and a balanced diet (which, holy cow, she eats me out of house and home, so no worries there), then there's really no point to doing another kind of milk to replace the bottles.  It will just be a matter of weaning her off those bottles - which I'm not holding my breath will happen anytime soon, as she is very attached to them.  But that's what I'm shooting for, anyway.

Is anyone else on that train of thought as well?  Or am I crazy?

SidraJedi

DD is still EBF and I SAH so we nurse on demand. I plan to go back to work part time very soon and DH may give her some whole goat milk while I am gone but I cannot be sure what we will do. Right now I'd say she eats about half of her nutrition from breast milk even though I give her three meals and two snacks she still nurses a lot. She gets homemade whole cows milk kefir (liquid yogurt) in a sippy for one of her snacks. She doesn't always finish it.

Also, I want to let her self wean but I also want to stop nursing at 2. I can't decide so I'm gonna play that by ear too.

SarahRae85

DS gets WCM on occasion, but I'm not making it a staple in his diet. He gets it with breakfast just like his sisters do, but that's the only time. The rest of the time it's water or some diluted juice in his cup. He also eats yogurt and cheese, so I'm not depending on WCM.

So, though he gets milk, I'm not using it to wean or replace BM as we wean (which I am doing, we're down to 3 feedings a day and about to drop down to 2). We're moving to a normal diet instead.

lars1226

I don't think it's crazy, we just had a discussion about how many of our LOs are refusing to drink WCM anyway. But it is pretty fantastic not pumping at work anymore, I feel so free! Nursing is just a part time job now, nights and weekends

MrsWindyCity

WCM is not necessary, but I would just make sure she is getting the "good" stuff from it in other ways, which is basically fat and calcium. So, avocado, oils, nut butters, yogurt, cheese, etc.

That said, I don't see the reason not to offer WCM, either. 

MrsG071809

I just don't see why I need to replace the bottles she was getting during the day with WCM, when she is 1) still getting 50% of the breastmilk she was before (although right now its 100%, but the goal is to get down to 50%) and 2) eating a healthy diet of solid foods where she gets all of the nutrition she would get from WCM.  It's just weird to me to wean her off my milk, but replace it with cow's milk.  So that's why I'm more inclined to keep pumping and EBF.  I feel like breastmilk will be much more beneficial to her.  I don't even drink cow's milk, so I don't really want to offer it to her either.  I may start offering almond milk at some point.

I guess I'm just up in the air on the whole thing, and curious what others do.  So thanks for your input!  Glad to hear others are doing things similarly.

runningyogimama

We FF, so we switched to milk, but the info sheet I got from the pedi at her 1 year appointment said that while they recommend weaning from formula/bottles at a year, you're encouraged to continue BF as long as mom and baby desire.

JGY

Sorry I so rarely post here anymore, but I have a little bit of input to offer.

We had to combo feed, so for now we have replaced the portion of his bottles that were formula, with WCM.  We always did a roughly 50/50 split in every bottle (BM and formula).  I plan to keep it this way now with the WCM as long as I can continue to effectively pump at work.

I will say though, that had our daycare not had a strict peanut and tree-nut free policy, we would have likely used Almond Milk instead of WCM, and we may yet switch to Almond for the bottles he gets at home. We double checked with our Pedi and there is enough fat in the AM to support him with what he needs in his diet.  But I guess those fats are where I would caution you to be careful and really make sure your babe is getting what she needs if you start cutting volume of milk (from whatever source).  I think the last thing I read from our Pedi's office was that our kid should still be getting a minimum of 24 oz. of milk a day.

As for why we would avoid WCM if given the option?  Well, humans don't really digest cow's milk effectively and so we feel like why should we replace something he CAN efficiently digest (formula/breastmilk) with something that he can't?  But we have to balance that with the desire to get him off of formula.  So that's the compromise we've made due to daycare restrictions.

Hope that all makes sense and that any of it is helpful to you!

 

Angela814

I work 2 days/week, and DD3 has been taking 2 bottles on those days. I started only pumping once at work and sending 1 bottle to the sitters. That did not go over well. She needs that 2nd bottle before her nap. So now she's getting 1 bottle of bm before her morning nap and a couple ounces of 2% milk (in a bottle) before her afternoon nap. At home we nurse full time. I usually give her water with meals but am starting to occasionally offer cow's milk (skim bc that's what we drink) at meals. She's still nursing 6-7x a day.

Angela814

I forgot to add that over the last couple months, DD3 has been drinking less and less in her bottles. She went from 5oz to 4oz and now to 3oz. So she's essentially starting to wean herself from those bottles. I don't see cow's milk as necessarily replacing bm. It's just adding another source of nutrients to the food she's already eating.

PipSqueak0313

My lo is milk allergic and having feeding delays so he is still getting 3 meals of pureed foods per day and he nurses during the day and/or gets a NUK learner cup with Neocate formula. I have given him small amounts of milk alternatives in his cup but that's not the bulk of his "milk" consumption. FWIW, if I feed him fork mashed veggies and similar sized table foods, the contents of his diaper will look almost identical to what was in the bowl when I was feeding him hence the purees and infant formula at this point.

jesuisfatiguee

I am slowly introducing some unsweetened almond milk to DS at dinner time. He seems to like it, as long as it's very cold. He's an odd kid - he prefers cold BM, too.

We still nurse on demand at home, and I'm still pumping at work a few times a week. I'll keep sending BM to daycare until I run out and get sick of pumping, at which point he'll go to almond milk. He's not the best eater when it comes to solids, so I feel better if he's getting some nutrition in liquid form. It's probably more psychological for me than anything else, though.

MrsG071809

my supply is really starting to dwindle, so I think I'm going to have to introduce something soon....probably almond milk.   My plan of dropping the bottles and switching to sippys hasn't worked at all, so I'm a little nervous how she'll do with switching to almond milk, but we shall see...

thanks for all the input ladies