If you BF please share your experience on weaning.

Mayoral04

I think I'm done with the whole BF thing.  It doesn't even make me sad to not do it anymore, but I feel she is attached more than my son ever was.  Why I want to stop?  I really don't have a reason I.just.do.  She does take a bottle from DH when I'm at work and with me she will not eat more than 2oz.  Please share some tips to make it a bit easier!  Or let alone how do I start?  I don't need to run this by her pedi right?  Thanks!

TAMLVSCARL

I'm interested in reading the responses you get. I think we're close to weaning too...

lijah

I just weaned Eli at 6 months. I dropped a feeding or two per week and the last two i kind of did cold turkey so they were the hardest on my boobs. They ended up painful and lumpy for a few days till when I finally pumped out like 1 oz from each and then the milk never came back. I am so much happier now. Eli drinks 4 times a day around 6 oz per bottle - at 8,12,4, and 8 (bedtime). He is on such a great schedule now. I was a little sad about stopping but I'm over it. Good luck!

aabreu32

I did a really gradual wean - and since I did that I had no issues at all.  DD was EBF for the first 2 months.  I found out I couldn't pump at that time so I knew I had to introduce FF to be able to return to work.  Then in the 3rd month (Dec), I introduced 1 FF bottle every other day and took away 1 BF.  In January I upped to 1 every day, then 2 every day, then three every day.  I went back to work February 1st.  For the month of Feb and March I continued to BF once in a.m .and once in p.m.  I planned to go all FF at 6 months, which was expedited by about a week because I had food poisoning and couldn't BF for two days - so I just stopped at that point and switched to all FF.  DD never had any issues since I went down to just two BF a day in Feb/March and I didn't have any physical issues either. 

pinkmoonlight

I were weaned by 7 months due to supply issues. It took over a month for us to do so. I am not sure if what I did was the correct way to do it but it worked for us. I stopped EBF (DD was used to the bottle and did not seem to mind how she got her food as long as she was getting fed so I had no issues doing this. She was also getting 2-3 bottles a day at that point anyways due to DH feeding her) and pumped at the begining and then slowly stopped pumping 1 session every week or 3-4 days.

When I started weaning by just doing all BM bottles for a week and then I slowly added formula to the BM for example at the time she was eating about 6oz of BM per feeding so I would make a bottle of 4oz BM and then 2 oz formula. I did this for about a week and then increased formula to 4 oz BM and then 2oz. I did this until I was up to complete formula and my freezer stash was gone.

Doing this she never had any issues with constipation or anything like that. We also used a gentle formula (We use Sam's Club Members Mark Gentle which is much cheaper then Simalac or any other name band formula) We did try a regular formula and she got pretty gassy on it as well as developed a diaper rash, when we switched to the gentle after another mom recommended it to us it was much better.

I did not run it by DD doctor. Really its your choice to stop BF. Everytime I go to the doctor with DD they just ask what I have been feeding her. If I am still BF or not. So I did not feel I needed to tell the doctor.

aabreu32

I realize I didn't address the second question.  I did not run it by DD's pedi - but she knew I was going to wean eventually because she knew I couldn't pump.

Mayoral04

Thanks ladies!  Have I mentioned how cute all your Lo's are?  Cute, cute, cute!  This is about the only thing that makes her happy when she's in a bad mood.  Well wish me luck.